Holland's first department store, the gloriously monikered Winkel van Sinkel, is now a sumptuous cafe-bar; the water tower a museum; the Courts of Justice a swish hotel.
The main draw is the long beach and rows of beach cafes offering sumptuous specialities, such as shrimp ceviche and fried sea bass in garlic.
- it looks just like woodland to me) and then rewarded ourselves with tea and chocolate cake at the Paragon, a sumptuous, wood-panelled, art deco cafe-restaurant-cocktail bar which could have been lifted straight from an ocean-going liner.
Midafternoon at a seaside cafe, I lusted for sumptuous seashells, a confection or a candy of luscious swirls of white, milk and dark chocolate, served with every cup of coffee.
Try the cafe mocha, with espresso, steamed milk and a sumptuous chocolate sauce, or the caramel latte filled with espresso, steamed milk and caramel syrup, topped with caramel sauce (small, $3.45; large, $4.95; huge, $5.95).
The cafes of Turin, still the world's most sumptuous and beautiful, are famous for serving the city's own hot-chocolate-and-espresso drink called bicerin, a fabulous layered concoction served in glass cups.
For organic meals, snacks and produce, try Sprout Organic and Natural Cafe, while a colonial-style building awaits you with a sumptuous organic menu at Yin Yang in Wanchai.
Once your eyes have adjusted to the gilt-edging and sumptuous drapery, it's easy to warm to the recently overhauled in-house Cafe Majestic bar and restaurant, with its wall-mounted rare butterfly collection and life-sized white porcelain greyhounds.
Starting at about 6pm, the grand old cafes and bars in the central grid of streets lay on sumptuous buffets to accompany early-evening drinks... and best of all, they're free (just don't tell your date that).
Seated around small cafe tables, the audience reveled in the intimate setting, listening attentively through two sumptuous sets of standards, led off by two Cole Porter songs.
