Leidseplein

I took some pics on the way back to Leidseplein last night. At left is the Grasshopper where I had dinner a couple of nights ago—the rather dismal T-bone. The place is a large three-story building with the restaurant on the top floor and bars on the two floors below. I wouldn't really recommend this place. I should have stuck to pub grub.

Beyond the Grasshopper is a maze of little streets with numerous bars and Amsterdam's famous coffee shops, like the one you see here. I had tea there the other day. Looking on the map, I think this maze of streets extends out quite a bit. Behind it (east of it maybe) is the red-light district. While I was waiting for my brother to show up at the train station (his train either to or from Frankfurt was delayed, I don't recall which now, in any case I think his return trip was much better: the combination of ICE (Inter-City Express) to Frankfurt followed by the TGV to Saarbrucken), I walked around this maze of streets and almost got lost. Good to have a GPS handy. In my case I used OffMaps on my iPhone which doesn't cost me anything to use so long as I remember to pre-load the right map tiles at the right resolution.

Leidseplein is a small area with bars and restaurants that's slightly farther away from the main downtown area that is close to the central rail station. Both the Paradiso and Bourbon Street are in this area. The pic shows the Irish pub where I had the salmon. Behind me is where the Bourbon Street is located.

Last night a three-piece band played at Bourbon Street. They were pretty good, with excellent drumming on a couple of Santana numbers. Kind of reminded me of Sparkling Apple that we used to see in Delta, back in the day. I had a couple of pints here and then decided to pack it in around midnight. The bar I think was open till about 4, so I thought that all the trams would also be running as late. Oops! Turns out I missed the last tram by about 20 minutes and had to hike it back to the hotel on foot. Only about a 20-30 minute walk, so it wasn't too bad. Just before I left I noticed this rather funny piece of artwork on the bar wall that I don't remember seeing the night before. It's the Rolling Stones Geriatric Tour poster :)