Amsterdam. Of cannabis and cheese.

It's the first day of August when we leave for Amsterdam. My birthday month. Full moon in Leo as well, my star sign. I am feeling like a slightly befuddled and tired leonine creature. I've not been sleeping well, a byproduct of menopause, the waking in the middle of the night ready for...what, I don't know but I'm fully awake for a couple of hours on watch duty and then fall asleep just in time to wake up and move on. The partner snores softly but I like total silence so he has brought a portable speaker and has purchased the calm App, which gives us a choice of different white noise. We have chosen crickets and up to now, it has been working but now it's not as effective. He is disheartened, I am slightly grumpy.

I've been to Amsterdam once before and it was memorable because we stayed on a houseboat in the winter and I remember waking up and looking out at the swans and ducks - that overrode all other memories. This time all I can smell as we walk from the station to our hotel, is the pungent odour of marijuana, we also find out it's Gay Pride weekend. The town is at capacity and full of wonderfully interesting people in dress up mode.

I've booked a very cool motel which later I find in other cities, in other countries - Motel One, worth looking them up. We have the day together before the partner heads off for a family occasion in England. We wander into the old Jewish markets which were famous in their day but are now pretty junky.

We're on the hunt for herrings again, we find a little shop in the narrow streets and the partner has his last plate and I go for the baby prawns again. Afterwards, we find a bar that has been operating since 1712! I can just imagine the people back then, the clothes, the bar maids, the jugs of ale; I have stepped back into another time.

On the way in, the partner is again studying the paving, I've gone inside and am absorbing hundreds of years of history. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus is very applicable now. My late husband was the same, looking at the plumbing while I'm staring at a medieval sculpture.

Every second shop in the centre is either a cheese or porcelain shop. I love the tulip vases and we both love the cheese shops as there are free samples. We try them all. We come across an amazing arcade of mosaics as we walk back but then Google maps lead us slightly astray and we end up in the Red Light District. I'm following the prompts only to look up to see the half naked girls in their cubicles in the narrow alleyways. It's hard not to look. It's hard not to get high on the whiffs of weed that float down the tiny alleyways.

The partner leaves that night for England and after that, back to Australia. We say our farewells and I settle in to my room. After all the weed vapour I've inhaled throughout the day, you would think I could count on a decent night's sleep. And it happens! (Although I do miss the crickets). Perhaps menopausal women should hang out in Amsterdam.

Breakfast is organic and healthy and I head off through a fine mist of rain, past the late nighters who haven't been home, past an amazing liquor shop with an array of Cannabis liquors and cannabis flavoured beers and other retro packaged beautiful bottles. I buy a couple of fruit liquors worried that I may get waylaid at customs with the weed varieties, and then find my way, slightly dampened, to the station.

Amsterdam Centraal was built in 1882 on 3 interconnected artificial islands created from sand taken from the North Sea Canal constructions. It's a Gothic/ Renaissance masterpiece, the interior is superb. It's so easy to get trains anywhere in the Netherlands and their pride in punctuality is big here according to the train inspectors who check their watches often.

I'm off to Naples where I'll meet the daughter and where we'll catch a ferry to the island of Ischia for my birthday. I still can't believe how blase I am now about travelling on trains, planes and ferries. As long as I'm there hours before, I can handle anything.

Leiden. Life on the canals.

Leiden is like a laid back country town but with style. We had a lovely ground floor room overlooking a canal which throughout the day is variously occupied by ducks and their families in tow, water lilies bobbing around them, Dutch families in their boats, picnics on board in lovely cane baskets, assorted rugs and alcohol on board. How civilised! And Rembrandt was born here, his father owned a mill here.

We were quite a way out of the centre but walking back in, we crossed beautiful wrought iron bridges with flower boxes everywhere. We were going to visit the Hortus Botanicus, as the partner is a landscaper and was keen to see the oldest botanic herb garden in Europe. This garden began construction in 1587, outside of the grounds of the oldest University in the Netherlands.

We lunched beside the canal beforehand, on focaccia topped with goats cheese, pine nuts and drizzled with honey. The gardens were beautiful, surrounded by stately 14 and 15th century houses and canals, The lotus flower in one of the ponds bloomed for us, the first time in years according to the gardener there. They referred to this lily as a She; she was exquisite. On our way back along the streets, there were hollyhocks blooming and framing the doorways.

The University came into prominence in the Dutch Golden Age, which occurred in 1588 and went on for almost one hundred years, when scholars from around Europe were attracted to the Dutch climate of intellectual tolerance. Galileo's friends were able to convince the Dutch to publish his theories when the Catholic church denied them on religious grounds.

We dined alongside another canal at Scarlatti's, on fragrant mushrooms stuffed with a piquant dutch cheese and a delicate salad with goats cheese, honey and thyme as we watched the sun set.

The next day, we breakfasted by the canal (can you guess what the partner had?) and then set off to visit Haarlem. The station there is an Art Deco masterpiece. The buildings were unique, slightly gothic with lots of chimneys and beautiful brickwork, dating back to the 14th century. Haarlem is known for it's 21 secret gardens; hidden courtyards scattered around the city. I managed to find one, there were couples walking hand in hand, kids playing, dogs racing around, beautiful trees and garden beds, all bounded by the houses that looked in on these gardens.

We lunched in the centre at a fish stall, herrings of course for the partner and tiny baby. sweet prawns for me. We walked to the one remaining windmill and then headed back to Leiden for a river cruise, passing by the Dutch in their boats. There were lots of young people, swimming in the canals, enjoying the summer days and there was a section of the river full of resident's houseboats. That night we dined on a barge on wine and dutch cheese souffle bites as the sun set in the distance.

On the last day, the rain arrived. We walked and explored the old buildings, modern cosy cafes and interesting shops.The partner was fascinated by the paving and ended up going to the council (as you do) to ask about how old it was and how it was maintained, while I sheltered in a lovely old cafe. When he returned he told me they'd said there were many fires and explosions in this city, the last and worst one being in 1807 when a ship laden with gunpowder and moored in the centre of the city, exploded, destroying 200 buildings and 151 lives.( Oh, and the paving engineer was out to lunch so we'll not find out about the paving this trip.)

We walked through the markets, admiring the Dutch cheeses, the different smoked fish stalls, vegetables and salamis and that night we had dinner at Scarlattis again. This time we had the famed Dutch mussel pot; a huge pot of mussels cooked in garlic and white wine, delicious. There were lots of locals out and about, on bikes, on foot, in boats, loving life. They really use every space of this city.

The next day as we left, we explored the last remaining windmill and then our time in Leiden was complete. We were on our way to Amsterdam where we would part company.

Delft. Of cheese, herrings and clogs.

Met up with the partner again in Delft, the town of the famous blue and white pottery, also the birthplace of Vermeer. Full of canals and extraordinary architecture. We arrive at our hotel only to find we're located up three narrow flights of stairs and through a maze of corridors. The partner goes down to have a word and we're shown to a ground floor room that has been left in all it's original glory. I'm in love with it - old stove, tiles, leadlight. It's huge. The partner, who likes to wash a few clothes in situ, is delighted to have space to hang them to dry. That sorted, we head out to explore.

The main square is beautiful, the town hall like a gingerbread house with red shutters framing lead light windows. We dine on beer and roast chicken with various sauces (a traditional dish around here), whilst listening to Brazilian singers in the square. The night is balmy as we wander the streets noticing that the majority of shops are either cheese shops or Delftware shops.

Underfoot , throughout the town, are white and blue pottery tiles with writing that spell out earth in different languages; even the lamp posts here are made of blue and white Delftware.

Outside our hotel is a barge on one of the canals where you can have drinks and watch the ducks float by. The canals are so slow moving that lilies are blooming along the edges. We have a nightcap on the barge and the next morning, we breakfast in a room decorated with Delftware plates and a mosaic of the famous Vermeer painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring.

The Saturday markets are on, spread along the canals, full of wondrous antiques and old Dutch tiles commemorating the war, the depression etc. that I long to take back to Auronzo but everything is too heavy and I'll be travelling for too long. People are so friendly here and everyone speaks perfect English.

We end up at the old Post Office that has been converted into a restaurant with an Indonesian theme. You forget that the Dutch had the South East Asia connection with the famous Dutch East India Company that ruled the waves and the spice trade in the 1600's. We have spring rolls and more artisan beer and people watch. That night we find the Inn that Vermeer's parents owned and dine on fish in butter with samphire greens.

The next day we set out to see the Hague, seat of the Dutch parliament and home to the U.N.'s International Court of Justice. I don't particularly want to go but the partner is keen and I have 'fomo' so off we go. The transport system here is amazing, efficient and on strictly on time.

We are on a herring hunt (which isn't really a hunt as such, as there are stalls of them everywhere) and they're served with gherkins. The partner loves them, I go for the battered cod. We come across a park with antique stalls set amongst the beautiful trees. The antiques in Europe are incredible, I buy old liquor labels, the partner buys a Delftware lighter.

We make our way through delicate summer rain to the Museum of Modern Art. It's set in an amazing Art Deco building and is full of de Stijl art, Kandinsky, Schiele (an artist from the thirties that I've just read a book about). There are rooms from The Dutch East Indies' heydays of extraordinary wealth, removed from houses that were being pulled down and recreated here. I was so glad I was talked into it. The colours of the tiles in this building are glorious, I take more photos of the building itself than the artists works. Fomo paid off.