Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Wham, bam, Amsterdam...

Since I last posted, the little woman and I headed to Amsterdam for a few days with Iza and her husband Renato. If you've been reading the blog lately, you know that Iza is B's best friend who is on her honeymoon in Europe. B and I celebrated 9 years of wedded bliss last week so we wanted to do something special. We chose well.

I've never been a man of few words, but I honestly don't know where to start in describing this fantastic voyage. Maybe I should start by describing what an unbelievably unique and beautiful city Amsterdam is. On paper, it probably shouldn't even exist. Amsterdam is below sea level and essentially built on a bog. Good ol' fashioned Dutch ingenuity and tons of pilings driven into the ground have kept the buildings from sinking into the quicksand for hundreds of years. Now on to other surprises. As most folks know, marijuana is perfectly legal in Amsterdam. One can march into a "Coffee Shop" and order pot and hash from a menu. From what I could tell, these place are packed during their hours of operation. Something I didn't know before going is that hallucinogenic mushrooms are also legal. The low price of these "drugs" and the casual nature with which they are sold and consumed is also remarkable.Here's the really shocking part for those of us brought up in puritanical corners of the world (like the US): Dutch society is not falling apart at the seams! Amsterdam is a modern, organized city full of culture and good times for all types. I really admire their ability to handle diversity.
Most people have also heard of the red light district. What you may not realize is that this area of town, far from being seedy and dangerous, is a tourist attraction! We walked through it at various time of the day along with tons of other tourists. While I'd heard about women flaunting their wares in windows, I didn't realize these "windows" are actually glass doors leading to a room just large enough for the expected services to be rendered. We saw all types of men and couples walking around "shopping". The whole time we were there, I saw no signs of ill will or aggression by anyone. By the way, many of the women we saw were absolutely smoke'n (even B and Iza thought so).
One of the highlights of the trip was the Van Gogh museum. It's impossible to describe the sensation of standing 2 feet from a world famous painting you've seen your whole life in books. I was also pleasantly surprised that the museum houses Monets, Pissarros, Cézannes and other impressionists I'd never heard of. If you love Van Gogh (and let's face it, you should), this museum alone makes the trip to Amsterdam worthwhile.

1 comment:

C N Heidelberg said...

Interesting!
I need to check out Amsterdam for myself ...the guy over at Deutschland ueber Elvis just said his friend hates the Netherlands because they aren't accepting of racial diversity :/ But this post doesn't jive with that.