A third trip to Holland saw us retracing some old steps as well as making some new ones. Dave and I turned up to Heathrow on the Friday morning and managed to get round terminals 2, 3 and 1 visiting the Landside Wetherspoons [very bog standard, but with a bit of beer albeit expensive], Landside Parallel 54 [dire and lagery] and Airside Tin Goose. The latter pub is new and is actually very good, with London Pride and Deuchars IPA on tap although it took a glacial length of time to get served our order. The view over the runway is however superb.

After a somewhat uneventful if slightly delayed flight we arrived at Schipol and were greeted by Nova who informed us that there were already plans afoot and Simon had booked us into an eatery called Taveerne de Resident somewhere in Den Haag. This was essentially quite a boisterous restaurant (they proclaim that ribs are a speciality), but they did have a bar area, a very traditional wooden interior and some cheap and cheerful draught beer and it was actually very good in there. We tucked into our ribs and beer and then went a few doors away to Nul 70 which was quite a trendy Dutch bar - they had candles on the table and functional seats. Surprisingly it did some quite reasonably priced Westmalle and was not full of many pretentious people so we gave it a reasonable mark.

The following day we ventured once again to Rootz in the middle of Den Haag for a light lunch. As described in other crawls, this is quite an old fashioned place with wooden tables and bare brick walls. This time we went upstairs, which was much less claustrophobic, and the toilets are nicer up there too. They have excellent caricatures on the doors and interesting sinks. The beer range was just as impressive though I do not remember in detail what we had but it was probably in bottles. An excellent score was once again recorded although not as excellent as our re-rating of De Paas, where we this time had a closer look at their wares. The beer range was once again extensive - this time the score was elevated further due to some fantastic specimens on tap. The bar snacks were visible this time and scored well too. Taking account of all these factors, we arrived at a score of 21¾ out of 25 - cheaper beer and better snacks were the main contributors to the new record.

Nova left us at this point, and Simon, Dave and I journeyed to Amsterdam. We had collected some sort of leaflet from the Dutch equivalent of CAMRA, called PINT, who had made some recommendations that we were going to try out. The first of these was In de Wildeman. This almost beat De Paas, but not quite. The pub was rich in art deco decorations and included a magnificent almost Victorian facade behind the bar, although it was a little busy, and had a very good array on draught, although the bottles were a little difficult to see. We stayed for two rounds I think - and I had the magnificent Excelsior beer from De Koninck, with a slight Amaretto taste. Coincidentally I had been drinking Amarreto on this trip as a nightcap. A tip for the casual punter is to go into the side room, for it is quieter there.

Arendsnest was an extremely thin and busy pub and we got talking to some English pissed ex-pat who happened to be there. Although the beer range was good, it was just too busy to enjoy and its interior was not classic, so we upped sticks and left once we had managed to prise ourselves away from the wall. Renewing old acquaintances, we paid a revisit to Gollem. Unfortunately the Weihenstephaner Dunkel was not on which detracted from its mark, but the pub itself was up to usual standards, exuding olde worlde charm. It was a bit busier on this occasion and a suited twat was obstructing the bar. Even more disappointing was Bekeerde Suster. Its write up in the guide led us to believe that it was bloody good, but it was not really. True, there was quite a bit of beer on, but it looked as though it had been sold out. The surroundings were quite minimalist, wooden and a little trendy. I suppose it was quite interesting because it was on a few floors and the bitteballe were rather good - I think I burnt my mouth on one of these. Nonetheless, the pub did not live up to expectations.

As before we paid a visit to the seedy La Vie en Rose with its expensive beer and pole dancers, but rubbing shoulders with grubby old men was wearing this, so we made our way to the station. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), there was not a train for almost an hour, so we headed back into town to a quiet cafe place called Emmelot and had a quick glass of Hoegaarden, followed by a disgusting kebab. Most other places were heaving with pond life by this time. On eventual arrival back at the ranch in Den Haag, a restorative Amarreto was greatly appreciated.

The following day we got on a train and headed for Den Bosch to participate in their carnival, and have a few interesting beers, aided by the guide. As it turned out very few ratings were performed that day because of the sheer volume of people and the futility in trying to order anything apart from Heineken. The event was memorable because everyone was dressed up and unlike in the UK, it was all good natured, nobody was there to spoil it and it was free from fascists telling you that you couldn't do something. We started with a cold rank Heineken in an unidentifiable pub with a Heineken sign on the corner of Lepelstraat. I didn't even go in as it was too busy. The situation was mirrored in De Deugniet which was actually listed in the guide. I briefly decided to have a look to see if I could make it to the toilet, but this was not an option so I went in an alleyway instead. Simon and Dave somehow manfully made their way to the bar and got us some Heineken, rather than the more interesting offerings described in the guide. More cold Heineken was ordered at Spaans, which was little more than a portable stall in an alcove, though at least it was not so busy.

Jaded of rank Heineken, we made our way back to the station and did at least have a different brand of pissy lager in the Station Brasserie whilst passing time before the train. A break of journey was made at Utrecht and after a rather nice dinner (and beer) at some sort of Italian joint which sadly did not count as a pub, we went to Café Belgie which was in the guide. For a change, this was no disappointment and I tucked into a very strong Kasteel Blonde from their extensive range. In an effort to be trendy in an arts student kind of way it was again quite a minimalist pub, strewn with posters and graffiti (for ironic/post modern effect presumably), although it was tolerable. The signage for the toilets was rather poor too. By this point we had begun to feel rather tired so made our way back to Simon and Nova's for Match of the Day 2 and Amaretto. There was one more pub however; the Monday morning stop at the Cafe Rembrandt at Schipol, where we have been before. If I've said it once, I'll say it again - this is an excellent airport bar: it's not everywhere that you can order Westmalle on tap is it?