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Published: September 25th 2007
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After a FRRRRRREEEEEEZING cold night in the van near the border we crossed over to The Netherlands and headed straight for Amsterdam. We decided not to go directly into Amsterdam but head to a little town nearby called Haarlem.
All it took was a short train trip and we were in central Amsterdm. We didn't have any accomodation booked but we managed to find a hostel quite easily. Once we checked in we hit the town and went for our first taste of the red light district. We found a tour that was run by the prostitution info center. It was quite interesting to learn the history and how the legal window prostitution works. Basically anyone over 18 who lives in the EU can rent a room with a glass door onto the street. There are red lights and black lights in the windows and they stand there in their lingerie or swimmers enticing potential clients. We even got to go into some working rooms (that were not currently in use) and saw how they were made up. After the tour we grabbed a local Amsterdam food staple for dinner, paper cones of chips with sauce and mayo. We then
Red Light District, Amsterdam
Sex and drugs... this place has the lot... headed back in and explored the red light district ourselves, it is a sight on to itself. While we were on the red light theme, we went to the sex museum (only 3 Euro entry) which was pretty fascinating. There were all sorts of exhibits like ancient potery, old pornographic art, records of the homosexual men put on trial and sentenced to death by burning or hanging, photo galleries from as early as the 1870s and even plastic manaquins in lewd poses.
The next day the weather turned bad again (what's new). We decided to try some indoor activities and spent some time on the internet calling home (using Skype) and uploading our previous blogs. Due to the lack of available Dutch cuisine we then found a cheap noodle place for lunch, kind of a pick-your-own-ingredients-for-a-stirfry place. After lunch we walked around town so more, it's what we do best, and found some lovely squares with old palaces/churches/town halls. We also headed back into the red light district for a different perspective of it (in daylight). It's amazing how many women work the day shift. Pretty weird as you don't get the effect of the red lights in the
windows with all the daylight streaming in. It was also interesting to see and smell so many 'coffee shops' around. We practially had to hold our breath just walking past the doorways unless we wanted a free smoke.
In the evening I went to the Anne Frank House while Lew waited nearby. There wasn't really that much to see but it was a pretty weird feeling to stand in the rooms where 8 people hid for so long. There are still posters on the walls that Anne put up to make her room less boring. Other than that, it's just a bookshelf infront of a stair case. You climb the stairs to see the different rooms the families lived in and some great videos of Otto Frank (Anne's father and the only survivor after they were taken to Auschwitz). Also of Anne's best friend who was taken to a camp adjacent to Auschwitz and was able to smuggle some bread to her in the last few weeks of her life.
That night we had Dutch Profitijes (the most dutch thing we could find) covered in chocolate sauce with icecream / banana for dinner / dessert as we had had
The first 'Coffee Shop'
Supposedly where it all started.... more chips in a cone for a snack earlier.
The next day we checked out of our hostel, got the train back to Haarlem and headed off for Den Haag. As usual it was raining so we decided just to see the Escher Muesum. It was pretty awesome to see the full size artwork and even some of his wood carvings. It left you feeling a bit numb as you try and unravel some of his great pieces. There was also a virtual reality movie where you could look all around some of his patterns and impossible shaps which was pretty cool.
Next on our way to Belgium was the Delta Project near Middleburg. Where we were expecting to see an informative expo about one of the worlds largest engineering projects, what it turned out to be was a water theme park with the expo now contained within it. The price was about 3 times what we expected so we decided to skip it and head off for Belgium early. We did get to walk along part of the outer dyke as well as see some of the storm surge barriers (even drove on the road over them)
Land of Bicycles
They were EVERYWHERE.... so it wasn't a wasted trip. we also found a spot on the waterfront to cook dinner while the sun set. We'll continue down to Belgium tonight until we find somewhere to sleep.
Cheers,
Lew and Holly
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