Amsterdam

I had to make an unscheduled trip to Amsterdam yesterday, and have just arrived home full of the flu. Its been a while since I've been there, and it looked dirtier than I remember. I don't propose to write much about it now but will at some time in the future....One mention of note is the bar around from the corner from the hotel I usually stay in (The Barbazon Palace). The place is called Cafe Int Aepjen....The following is the tourist speil in guidebooks:


One of the oldest bars in Amsterdam, housed in the only remaining 15th-century home, heavily decorated with old toys and advertising materials. The name means 'In the Monkey', which refers to the time this was a sailors lodging house. When someone couldn't pay his bill he supposedly brought back a monkey on the next trip. No music, but a accordionist during weekends to guide the regulars during their sing-a-longs

What the above doesn't mention is that there is a dutch saying which translates roughly to mean "you've been at the monkey's" denoting bad luck. The monkeys left as payment had fleas...so tenants at the house were always scratching....Also this was a place that press gangs looking for sailors would turn up and shanghai drunken revellers who would wake up the next day on a ship heading to the Dutch East Indies......

Short note today, but as I said I'm sick

Terry