10 days ago, very early in the morning, this is what I saw as I was eating my Pret breakfast. Seeing hen parties as you sit and wait to board an 8am train is a bit nerve wracking, as all you want is a quiet carriage and a pleasant journey. Fortunately the two groups we saw were getting on the Paris train, and not ours to Amsterdam.

It was time for a repeat trip to my home from home with D & A, a year later. A had the foresight to bring playing cards and we warmed up with this game, where you didn’t want to end up with the queen of hearts. Such a fun and simple one, with lots of tension. And yes, D picked it up here.

The four hour journey goes really quickly when you play cards. We realised that we might be the last generation who play regular card games, as I can’t imagine today’s kids being that interested, when you have games like Exploding Kittens etc. I have to teach Oomoo this though, which I hadn’t played in 20 years. Shithead is such a brilliant game, the perfect mix of strategy and luck, and the fact that your hand can change very quickly, from good to bad and back again makes it really fun.

Arriving in Amsterdam is really easy now that my friend Z lives in Noord. Once we arrive at Central Station it’s a five minute tube ride, and boom there we are.

Just like last year we headed straight to Liever Hier for lunch, and this time we got a great table, so great that we stayed there for a couple of hours, eating incredibly well and catching up.

The table was hidden amongst the tall grass (much taller than last year)

and Z picked some to take home

as well as some cow parsley.

I asked Z to take a seat here as I wanted a picture of the café (to the left of yellow tree) and just as I took the picture this woman and her dog walked past and made it complete. Smiles all around.

We then heard the unmistakeable sound of a Solex tour.

Look how happy they are! Such a good idea.

Here’s a clip I filmed last summer when we got overtaken on our pushbikes by a tour. If you cycle north for 10 minutes from Z’s front door you arrive in the countryside. Didn’t manage it this time round, but there’s always the next trip.

After our long meal we needed to stretch our legs so we walked around this little inlet and admired the light catching on the lily pads.

A did some tree bonding too.

We then spent the evening on Z’s balcony and felt very pleased by the fact that we hadn’t even ventured into the city centre. I realised on the last trip to Amsterdam last August that I can’t keep up my usual tempo on city breaks anymore, and that maybe less is more after all.

So here’s to more balcony hangs in the future 🧡