Destination: Dreamland

The place itself looks a bit unkept, dark, outdated and untidy. Harry's Bar is not really the ideal cocktail bar my imagination is expecting. There are the predictable bottle covered walls and shiny mirrors all bathed in dim lights, but the bar looks more like a brown café - where beer would definitely be more appropriate, along with a few cauldrons of brewing potions.

And then, the magic kicks in. I open the cocktail list, cautiously, and my eyes start wandering from one name to the other, fast, faster. The magic starts carrying me away from the dark walls and my imagination finds new wood to fuel itself on: Seabreeze, Harry's spoon, Moscow mule, Tequila sunrise, Blue lagoon, Bay breeze, Cosmopolitan, Red Lotus, Blue Hawaii, Paradise, Pink Lady, Tom and Jerry, Bellini...

The latter, has me buying a one way ticket to Rome: a year ago, after a full day at the Vatican, we ended up in a beautiful wine and cocktail bar in a small Roman street. Fair weather, lively people, typical street, cobblestones, heady perfume of lilac and my first Bellini ever, with a smile glued on my face and all over my heart. The Bellini I drink in Amsterdam brings this all back with full strenght. 

The rest of the cocktail names has me on the Hogwarts Express, on the way to Dreamland, for good.