What I Learned on our Trip to Amsterdam

• My mind is clearly too enamoured of this reality to allow me to play in any other, to the point of anchoring me to my body with intense bouts of nausea every time I try to leave.
• Cyclists can be a real nuisance when they have complete right of way over all other traffic, even pedestrians.
• Market forces making a cup of coffee more expensive than a marijuana joint - completely understandable, and yet still bemusing.
• Buying vodka is a matter of asking for stock to be retrieved from a secret stash; this gives drinking spirits in Amsterdam the illicit thrill that harder drugs lack.
• A gorgeous hotel room can make all the difference.
• I gained an even greater respect and appreciation for the non-smoking laws in the UK after breathing in cigarette exhaust almost everywhere we went.

I had a lovely time, but I see no reason to ever go back. Maybe Brian Aldiss had it right when he had his elderly archaeologist Daniel Potts remark in Super-State, "Travel does not broaden anyone's mind. It merely confirms one's prejudices." I would like to believe otherwise, but then I look up at my list and wonder.