amsterdam2006

Created September29, 2008.
Copyright 2008 by John W. Allen

CLICK ON EACH IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Amsterdam 2006
Early in the month, I was invited to visit the largest and best of the government run sacred mushroom farm near Teil, Nederlands. My traveling on this sacred pilgrimage was none other than Rich Gee, co-author of How to Identify and Grow Psilocybe Mushrooms. After arriving at the Holland Airport we had to take a train to Uthrich and then Transfer to another train to the town of Tiel (pronounced as Tea-ull).

In Tiel, we were picked up by one of the two owners and operators of Fresh Mushrooms (http://www.freshmushrooms.nl) and driven to our hotel, a small chateau which years before had been a ferry terminal to and from Tiel.

On the way we saw this cool windmill

Finally we approached our hotel after driving over a beautiful large spanned bridge.

Here are two images of the Chateau:

and the 2nd image is of one of the young girls who work at the bar in the chateau.

Inside the chateau, there was a quaint little fireplace where I drank a lot of hot chocolate. Breakfast was complimentary with the room.

On the way into the dining area (there were two areas for dining) We noticed this sculpture of a quaint Dutch person offering us mints.

Here is an image of the first dining room and inside you can see an old RCA Victrola.

This next image of the water was photographed from my 2nd floor room window. It shows the flooding and how the trees in the river were flooded and the town of Tiel across the flooded river is also partially under water near where the ferry arrives as you shall soon see.

A better view of the water and flooded region in front of the hotel facing the town of Tiel across the river. The two black posts are where the ferry lands during this flooded period, however, the clay-brownish-red dirt road at the far left upper corner of this next picture is usually where the ferry docks, but much is under deep water as seen here. Also Rich and I observed several kids on bicycles out there in the tree areas of the water up to their waste in water on mountain bikes trying to get to the ferry service top go to school in Tiel. Each morning, dozen's of school girls on bicycles arrived to take the ferry across from where we were to Tiel. Strange as it was, some wore high heels riding their bicycles. The ferry goes whether it is one person or fifty.

In this image below I am standing on the ferry boat as it prepares to leave to Tiel from the hotel. It was taken just before we left to Tiel which takes approximately 8-10 minutes to cross the river from the hotel.

In these next two images we are leaving the hotel towards Tiel.

Well as you can see in the next image. This is what happens at the hotel when the Rhine River from Germany floods throughout the south to other regions.

From the rescue helicopter, you can see the Chateau and Restaurant, 't Veeruis Wamel' (Land can Maas en Waal) where we were staying

In this image below, we are landing at Tiel ferry dock. So we are actually facing the bottom center of the picture. Across the water Is where the hotel we were staying at was which became surrounded by water. (hehehehe!)

To the left in the image is a public park. Someone was sitting on the bench at the waters edge, yet in the water and quite a ways out on the left you can see park benches submerged partially and also the tall light posts out in the river. Quite a flood. Here are two images from that moment of landing.

The ride was 1 Euro dollar each across. We did this for four days coming and going, day and at night. One night we arrived later it cost us 25 Euro dollars to an expensive cab ride to the Chateau because the ferry stops at 8 pm in the evening.

Well the first thing we see after embarking from the ferry was this small bulletin board in front of the ferry station walkway

So we walked into Tiel, a half mile or so looking for a smoke shop to do you know what.

And for those of you who are reading do not know what "to do you known what is?", then go to some other site and find out what "you know what means."

Anyway, we found this dankly looking store front with the sign Relax on it and a marijuana leaf.

So we entered the establishment and noticed about five tables on the left side of the long corridor into the smoke and coffee house. At the front table were two foreigners (English) and three empty tables after them and then the final table in the coffee house restaurant on the far left end of the shop was a table with about 7 jihadists (just kidding?) but they were of Arab ancestry, [probably Algerian or Egyptian]. Maybe Lebanese or somewhere from a northern African Dutch Colony.

The owner of the shop was standing by a pin-ball machine (a very old 1960-1970 machine. Probably owned it since it was new.

He had a cardboard list with bad printed English on it advertising different strains of pot for sale.

We picked out a $10.00 Euro dollar gram of Jack Herer, left the club and walked back to the ferry boat to our hotel.

We looked at some pictures we took earlier at the mushroom farm and soon we rolled a nice fattie to smoke and it was not very special at all. Most likely it was some real cheap home grown pot. It was shit; and we realized that in no way, was this any of the famous Amsterdam winning grade of pot from their annual hemp fests. I think the owner of the Relax joint just bought a few kilos of weed, and then bagged them up and labeled them with different names.

So thus ends part one of our trip to the Nederlands.

Stay tune below for the Amsterdam Supremacy

PART TWO: The AMSTERDAM SUPREMACY Journey into Amsterdam and the red light district. Sorry I took no porn images of the girls in the windows. Both Rich and I were verbally abused by some dark Surinamese lady prostitutes who thought we were trying to photograph them. I told one that in no way would I ever want a picture of her. That got her real pissed. Rich was doing a 360 cam shot of the district and the canals with boats in them and a group of women opened their windowed doors and started screaming at us and we were not photographing them at all. Their pimps, mostly middle eastern people stand outside the doors to watch and hassle anyone the girls think are rude or bothering them.

There are many live sex shows in Amsterdam and other Dutch cities throughout the country. We did not go to them, but I went in one in 1998 and they have oral and normal sex but no orgasms on the stage. They always end the show before anyone gets one.

Rich took great movie footage of the some of the nightclubs from the outside and maybe even got a few girls in the window photos. I will asked him in a few weeks when he is back in town.

So here is the continuation of my journey to Amsterdam from Tiel.

It is a 2-3 mile walk from the ferry in Tiel to the train station. On the way through town we stopped and I bought some Gouda cheese, the real kind. Not that hard frozen three times before it gets on the shelf cheese at American markets. Then it was 24.00 Euro dollars for two to Amsterdam one way. So each day for four days we rode that train back and forth in the afternoon and then evenings to come home to the Chateau.

We rode to Utrecht and then transferred to Amsterdam.

Here are two shots of the train station in Amsterdam from two different angles on two different days.
In this image I am standing directly facing the Train Station in Amsterdam

Looking directly towards the right from front of the train station.

And now the station is behind the beautiful painting on the wall of the canal with the boats for tourists. We are traveling down the main street of the city where everything begins to happen in Amsterdam.

A gigantic wall painting advertisement in the canal in front of station.

Although I am not showing a photo, the people were thick as the street width and deep from one end to the other of the street on both sides from the curb to the shops.

A little walk through the girly red light district and where all of the many coffee shops with pot are we saw this on the street corner of one of the first canals we crossed in the district.
A safe place for prostitutes to get information when needed about their profession.

A little architecture where we were hassled by a Surinamese girl behind us in a red light window posing nude.

and here is a look down the canal. On the streets on the left and right are many live sex show clubs and dozens of Windowed girls offering their wares.

Rich and I spent about 45 minutes walking along checking them out. Out of maybe 100 girls we viewed in the windows, only two were of Jessica Alba/Liv Tyler beauty and body. The rest were average and strange, and many winked at us as we went by.

A view of the 2nd Canal from Warmoesstraat Street. Red Light District.

Finally we found a smoke shop on a main street in the district where many such coffee houses are common and we smoked some pot and I had a beer which I rarely do. Never more than about 6 a year.

Here a doobie is being rolled and this was a lot better than the shitty Jack Herer pot obtained in Tiel at the coffee house called Relax.
Rolling a spiff for medicinal purposes.

On the wall of this club was this object of interest.

So after getting bombed we went outside the club and the shop next door to the club was a sex shop and this is from the window on the street. many of these sex shops were all over the area.

In Amsterdam, everything is visible from the window. Very High moralistic people.

Right next door to the sex shop was the Meat Rack, Here is an image of their window, which also had another smoker's coffee house next door to it.
Like food for eating, this meat also sits in the window for days.

A little farther down the street was another shop selling magic shrooms called the Elements of Nature (www.thesmartstore.com). It was really a head shop run by middle eastern ethnic people. We went in and introduced ourselves and the guy managing the store seemed really friendly. I showed him a few of my books gave him a copy and he was interested and then I took my camera out and ask if I could take a few pictures of the mushroom statues he had hanging on the wall and the guy threw a shit fit at me. He even threatened to call his Arab boss in to beat the shit out of me saying no one takes pictures in his shop or they would get beaten. It was scary. What an asshole.

This is his shop.

The next shop, a few doors down the street was also selling shrooms as seen in this image. And in the close up next to the image:

The Bba Head Shop on the left. The Mushroom Gallery on the Right. Both nice tourist oriented friendly.
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Finally we reach the shop of my friend Hans van Den Hurk. He was the first person to be arrested and charged for selling dried mushrooms in Holland and the one who beat the charges and was then allowed to sell only fresh mushrooms. Because of him, all of Holland can sell fresh entheogenic plants legally throughout the country.

This particular shop is called the Kokopeli and is operated by a cool lady named Veronique (pronounced as Vera-neek.)

We smoke some dope in here to. Couches, a window view of the canal and main street in Amsterdam and good loud music. They have computers for customers and foods and drinks and sell everything under the sun which is psychedelic. They even had some P. subaeruginosa for sale, as well as liberty caps and P. azurescens, along with fresh peyote, San Pedro, ibogaine, caapi, etc.
Here are some images from their store.

From their grow room I noticed a fallen photograph of Amanita muscaria on the grow room floor I gave to them in 1998. IT use to be on the wall but had slipped in the frame and no one bothered to fix it. I also noticed some knocked-over peyote and san pedro plants in their indoor grow room.
Some of their growing ventures.

And two Huichol Indian Peyote yarn paintings for sale. The lights in the grow room made it almost impossible to get the true colors to show.

Two images of these yarn paintings.

A few more exotic plant items for sale here at the Kokopeli shop.

Even peyote and san pedro seeds are available.

Two images of architecture.

And now a poster on the main street of the district around all of the coffee houses. I took this shot because it is Bette Midler and reminded me of her movie role in "For The Boys" with James Caan. It looks like a world war 2 recruiting posted.
For emergencies such as fires or crime, call 911.

And here on the main street from the train station where all the tourists restaurants and malls and shops are is the Amsterdam Sex Museum.

This was outdoors the entrance to the show. Seven floors of artifacts dating back 1500 years (no elevator or lifts) and skinny stairs. We did not go in but I went in to visit this museum back in 1998.

Very erotic ancient paintings and sculptures there including the ancient pre-Columbian "penis" drinking vessels of the Incas.

I took this shot from the street. Although other images blurred.

And finally a cool postcard of President Bill Clinton saying, "I don't inhale."

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