Houston to Amsterdam

Now we've got the three dots on the map, I'll pick up where I left off at the end of my first dispatch, sawing logs all night at the Hotel Kabul. My first day in Amsterdam was Saturday, and I continued making the rounds of my favorite spots: 420 Cafe, Coffeeshop Amnesia, the BlueBird, Sensi Museum Coffeeshop, the Cannabis College, and the NesCafe, where we ran into my friend Dave the computer genius and music programming king. Dave took pity on me and took me home with him to his place in the Pijp near Albert Cuypstraat, cooked me a late snack and played some hell of a music all night and in the morning too, which went perfectly with breakfast and a long hot soak in the big bathtub.

John Sinclair at The Palace

Dave and I decided to walk up into town on this misty morning and Dave turned me on to a couple of nice places I hadn't visited before: the Tweede Kamer near the Spui and the other one I've forgotten the name of (duh) but I know right where it is. Now it's Sunday and I still don't have a place to stay, but I amde arrangements to go over to Rotterdam on Monday and spend a few days with my guitarist and comrade Mark Ritsema, so I've only go to get through Sunday night and I'll be okay until the next weekend. Then I find out that my friend Jim Epstein from San Francisco is in town and run into him at The Dolphins, next door to where he always stays at the Golden Bear Hotel, and he invites me to spend the night in his room like I've done on previous trips. The only drawback to this is that we both have to sleep in the same bed, but this time it's a brand new bed and we manage to get through the night without snoring eacgh other to death.