The European Incident 2019

Where did TOO go? The banner looks nekkid without him.
ps I did a crossword puzzle today and the answer had four spaces and the clue was "any time now".
No matter how hard I tried I couldn't fit **soon** into four spaces...

Hopefully whomever modified the banner has a copy of the original unedited version. Please forward this to me and no questions will be asked and no points deducted from your account. Your move...

I'm not focused at all on misbehaving. Animals will be animals . I've just been too swamped to do a write up or process the thousand pictures that I took but it will happen **in the very near future**.

Here are my travels in the last few weeks to give you an idea of what's up.

Lynchburg>Raleigh>Philadelphia>Amsterdam>Prague>London>Raleigh>Chicago>Charlotte>Lynchburg

I haven't been home for 2-1/2 weeks and I won't get there until Friday. I'm currently at a work conference in Chitown so hopefully this weekend I can look into my photo albums and do a brief write up. Don't expect a mccjeff style write up, I'm not a skilled writer...

There! The banner is all fixed and good as new...

(NO THANKS to the cats!)

You know. They go to London and take on airs...

Here is an 11 minute video that I took walking from the Charles Bridge through the cobblestone streets to Old Town in Prague. Kind of gives you a feel of what it was like to be there on a wonderful Spring day. I wish I had recorded it in landscape mode but I didn't so there...full report still to come.

I'm going to split this into two parts, one for Amsterdam and one for Prague.


After six months of planning, saving, acquiring passports and getting interviewed by a US customs agent the time was here. This was really going to happen!

Friday April 12 travel to Raleigh to meet up with NCLockn and Sarah. The four of us look at each other in some disbelief that we were really going to pull this off.

Saturday April 13 fly from Raleigh to Philly and then fly overnight from Philly to Amsterdam.

Arrive in Amsterdam and connect with our transfer, piece of cake. He delivers us to our houseboat on the canal and we start to get settled in and drink a bottle of wine that was waiting for us. Soon after that we head to the nearest "coffeehouse". What an experience to walk into an establishment and see a menu on the chalkboard that says Kush, White Widow, Hash, with or without tobacco, pre rolled joints, etc. Pick up a few ready rolls and head to the next room to blaze. This would be the first of many many trips to the coffeehouses . Keep in mind that I had been mostly "smoke-free" for about twenty years but I started "training" about two to three weeks before this trip so that I could hang. My training paid off in spades. Next we just start to wander around and get our bearings. Check out some canals, some architecture, find a bar (we did this a LOT), check out some shops and some of the back alleys. Then we hit the local grocery and stock up on bread, cheese, meat and fruit and wine (LOTZA Wine...). Now we head to Wurst & Schnitzelhaus for some Schnitzel. I had never had it but it was excellent along with a couple of Warsteiners. 



Monday we just kick around town hopping from one coffeehouse to the next bar and just soaking up the vibes. This place is awesome! A bicycle is the preferred mode of transport there but watch out those fuckers will run you over and not even blink. Visited one of the many charcuteries and was overwhelmed at the selection. What a wonderful smelling place.




Next we wander to Brouwerij 't IJ (The Windmill Bar). Thanks for the recommendation VinnieTheEel !



Much to our surprise (none of us saw it coming) there was a pop up Grilled Cheese Incident on the houseboat that night. We couldn't believe it but it was happening...






Next off to Dam Square to poke around and maybe find another coffeehouse...we found the Bulldog Cafe. One of the few coffeehouses that served both MJ and alcohol. Think we are going to like ti here...

Tuesday we rented a car for a day trip to the countryside. First a visit to Kastle de Harr and then a trip to the tulip fields of Kuekenhof Farms. Holy shit! I had no idea there were that many different colors and styles of tulips, that was amazing!







Wednesday mccjeff and Pam arrive! This trip is getting ready to move to the next level.

Jeff and Pam's houseboat.



Just another Wednesday in Amsterdam on a houseboat...



More sightseeing, bars and coffeehouses in store. dinner at a vegetarian restaurant, The Golden Temple, that night. The next day we had brunch at Dignita Hoftuin. The best dam meal I had the entire time I was gone! I ordered the Benny Boy (basically eggs benedict). Two free range poached eggs (perfectly poached) served on their signature crispy potato hash with crispy streaky bacon, apple cider hollandaise & micro greens, with a Bloody Mary. Heaven on Earth. Later we are off to tour the Van Gogh (pronounced goff) museum and then the girls are off to tour the Anne Frank house while the three of us are headed to a bar that only served Dutch beers. Yum.



Met these three folks who worked for booking.com so when this boat happened to come by I had to take their picture and tweet it to Booking.com



Somewhere in there we managed a tour of the red light district (of course we did)...

Next morning we are off to Prague. It has been an amazing week but we still have one more week to go. Here is a link to some of my pictures but they are just the highlights. Too many to share them all.

The European Incident 2019 - Part One Amsterdam

Part Two - Prague coming **soon**

Oops! Guess we gotta go back...

Yeah!! So glad y’all had fun, keep the stories coming.

The view from our rooftop terrace in Prague with the Prague Castle on the hill...