Amsterdam: Is a city of canals with 90 islands and 1500 bridges. Coffeeshops  are big for tourists, but not as much anymore, as many other locations have legalized this weed. This is the term used for smoky rooms buying and smoking marijuana.   They also sell coffee.   Most are located in the Red Light District. They can sell a maximum of 5 grams of cannabis twice a day to the same person. Cannot sell cigarettes or alcohol. Smartshops sell psychoactive and related substances. Here you can buy magic truffles and cacti. I nteresting that those are legal, but magic mushrooms ( psilocybe cubensis ) aren't . They are rapidly being replaced by online retailers. Read my posting 2011  providing details, for nothing much as changed. Another one of 2014 . The Netherlands is called the land of windmills.  From the Viking Daily. Records indicate that  China was the first  to use windmills, to pump water in 200 BC. Some say they were first invented...

I'm doing well.  The world seems also to be okay, with no weather calamities and the wars in Ukraine and Gasa Strip in some  kind of stalemate.  Will Iran take revenge?  Will there be a truce and hostage exchange?  The ship daily provides the USA Times. On the Donald Trump front, nothing much.  The  hush money criminal trial  will proceed in New York City on April 15, the Supreme Court will on April 25 hear oral arguments about his immunity request and Fani Willis is still on the Georgia RICO case.   Who leads today , Trump or Biden?  Who cares.  These trials will make the difference on November 5. In sports. March Madness came and went, with Connecticut repeating as men's champs, and South Carolina returning to the top for women.   I haven't seen any Major League Baseball game this year on TV and I've missed making roster adjustments with regularity, but my three ESPN fantasy teams still lead their leagues at #1. The...

THIS POSTING IS ANOTHER OF MY EXPERIMENTAL FORAYS NECESSITATED BY MY TRAVEL SCHEDULE.  Here is my problem. A Tauck Tulip cruise on the Espirit is filled with too many things to do that I can't find time to do my blog. Today, I will merely provide a bunch of photos, and later come back to make some sense of my day, Keukenhof in Lisse, Netherlands, is the  ultimate tulip garden of the world, and among the most fabulous of any floral park anywhere.  I have rarely been so impressed about anything of this nature in my life.  Covers 79 acres with 7 million flower bulbs. Keukenhof is only open to the general public for 8 weeks during the tulip season, which is mid-March to mid-May.  Mid-April is best, and yes, it was incredible. One comparison is that the Rijksmuseum, which I visited yesterday, receives an average of 8,000 visitors/day.  Keukenhof does 26,000/day. Created by Adriaen Block, governor of the Dutch East India Company in 1641. Restructured in 1857. How...