Diariespart9

                             October 2001

I just spend a wonderfull weekend in IJmuiden. Not a city where you want to
be in the middle of the night since it is hardly that interesting. No, we
have stayed at the Marina directly on the sea. I had booked a delicious
room in the Holiday Inn Ijmuiden Seaport Beach, which is directly located at
the beach, only 150 meters by foot untill the desert of water is moving
before your feet. At the right you have the main entrance sea-canal to
Amsterdam (Noordzee canal) but it so big that seaships can enter it,
at our left is the long beach which you can follow until Zandvoort if the
weather is ok. Next door to the hotel we had four restaurants to choose
from, we choose Chinese and were not the only one who thought that. But
let's go back to the beginning.

The very original plan was to stay in The Hague itself but neither no me or
my friend Nathalie had any desire to do so. No nightlife for us this weekend
with all the looking faces as mostly they think we are couple, which we are
not. We both looking for the same sex-partner and we do have taste and our
taste doesn't come our way if we are together. As Nathalie said she wasn't
coming I suggested the second version of this weekend and she liked it much
better. I took homonopolis and a bottle of Austrian wine and we met up in Amsterdam Central Station, where I arrived too late and she was too                         early.
Every time I come to Amsterdam I want another escape then the one central
route which everybody takes, the Dam Square. We crossed the front of Central
and walked past the Nicolas Church to the beginning of the red zone of
Amsterdam, walked at the other side of the canal so we had all the space to
ourselves. Chatting, looking and being observed by two small ladies in red
lingerie we reached the Waag where diverted our way towards the Amstel
river. We ended up at the cafe de Jaren at the Doelenstraat, a huge
grand-cafe where just about half the city and it's tourists are coming, took
some search but we finally took position direct at the window, stuck in the
small wooden seats, flirting with men and women depending on what our eyes
caught. Had a small lunch (tomatoe-soup with bascilum and creme fraiche and
a fresh orange juice) and talked about just about anything.

After shopping we went to the hotel and ended up taking the bus from
Amsterdam Sloterdijk (line 82) were we checked in at the hotel at six in the
evening. The room was beautifull with wooden floor, Scandinavien interior, a
small balcony with chairs, open table in the room and everything smelling of
wood, like being in the forest. Took our stroll to the sea, climbing the
rocks to the dijk and walking over the wall into the sea and then thinking,
"shit, it is dark now we have to follow the wall till the end to get back
save in the hotel..".


After our Chinese adventure we stayed in our hotel room, installed a bottle of white wine on the balcony and settled for a long game of Homonopolis, which lasted untill 2 in the morning. Wine and nougat were our company. Our weekend was short but nice since I had to start at 10 next morning, while Nathalie slept till 12 and then walked along the sea to Zandvoort. It was a splendid weekend!