Monday, August 29, 2011

Amsterdam, the City of Canals, Pot and Prostitutes

Sorry for the lengthy delay in posting. It took us this long to buy an internet package so we could start posting.
If I recall correctly, when we last left off, we had just arrived in Amsterdam, lugged our suitcases through the cobblestone and bricked streets, and set up camp in our houseboat. The only thing planned for Tuesday night, our first in Amsterdam, was a tour of the Red Light District. Guess what happened? Yep, it rained. Poured, actually, and the tour was cancelled. So, we waited out the storm, wandered a bit and called it a night.
Wednesday, we began the day by touring the Anne Frank house. Margaret, being the genius she is, had secured us advance tickets. So instead of waiting in the long line stretching around the block, we rang a bell, were buzzed in, and immediately began our tour.
To give just a bit of history, Anne Frank's father, Otto, owned a business selling spices and pectin for making jelly. The Netherlands had been neutral in World War I, and were unprepared for the Nazis. It took less than a week for Germany to conquer the Netherlands, beginning a five-year occupation. In order to save his business, Otto Frank transferred ownership of his business to an "Aryan" collegue, and sent out word that he and his family were fleeing to Switzerland. In reality, he had prepared the annex of the warehouse for his family's hiding. While the office employees knew of their hiding, those working in the warehouse did not.
After touring the office and warehouse, you come across the secret entrance to the annex, hidden behind a bookcase. Stepping into the annex, you immediately get a sense of how small the living space was for those eight people. Four rooms, none of them large, windows blacked out. And for two years. I simply can not imagine. Despite all of the horrors of WWII, it amazes me that this girl could remain so hopeful. In the end, Otto was the only member of the Frank family to survive WWII and return to Amsterdam.
Having purposefully left most of our time in Amsterdam free, we did a bit more wandering, had lunch, and returned to the houseboat for a rest, and made another attempt at touring the Red Light District.
What can I say about this little part of Amsterdam? Begin with history I guess. Prostitution has long been a part of Amsterdam's history. The prostitutes even donated a cross for a spire on St. Nicholas Cathedral. As it turns out, St. Nicholas is the patron saint of both prostitutes and sailors. Convenient, eh? Anyway, the prostitutes in Amsterdam are unionized, quite effectively. When a law was passed requiring prostitutes be routinely tested for STDs, the union fought the requirement as unconstitutional, arguing that if prostitutes must be tested, so should anyone who regularly comes into contact with body fluids. The Court of Justice sided with the prostitutes.
In an effort to combat the spread of STDs, a prostitute, who is part of the union, that contracts HIV is provided a fully subsidized apartment if she agrees to give up prostitution. In addition, condom use is required, though its basically impossible to enforce. Its estimated about 45% of the prostitutes in the Red Light District are HIV-positive.
As we walked through the RLD, I felt sort of awkward. I mean, here we are, wandering past these women selling their bodies, and we're on an organized tour of it all. I guess its just a part of life in Amsterdam. In fact, we passed by both a daycare and a Christian youth hostel, both surrounded by windows. There is also a theatre which shows 8 different live-sex acts, and apparently encourages audience participation. Eww. Thus ended our day Wednesday.
Thursday, we ventured to the Van Gogh museum, which was quite interesting. I hadn't realized he was only 37 years old when he killed himself, and had only sold one painting in the course of his lifetime.
Margaret and I spend the afternoon following the walking tour in the Rick Steves' guidebook. Amsterdam got its name from the damming of the Amstel River, where Dam Square is now located. As Rick Steves puts it, "Amsterdam is a bold experiment in freedom." Nearly nothing is illegal as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. Historically, Amsterdam was an important center of trade, and had one of the first successful stock exchanges (which originally was more of a commodity exchange, where physical goods were traded). The country had traditionally been a democratic society, but had a monarchy imposed by Napoleon. After Napoleon's defeat, the powers that be decided to retain a monarchy in the hands of a noble Dutch family.
Amsterdam was beautiful, and its amazing how one street can be bustling with tourists and shoppers, and the next street over is as quiet as a suburban neighborhood. There's not a whole lot of vehicular traffic away from the main streets and area around Dam Square/Centraal Station, except for the large number of bicycles. The tram system is fairly easy to figure out, and you never really need a car (or a taxi, for those of you cheap skates).
Finally, on Friday morning, it was time to head to the ship. We'd been travelling for six days already, and had not even gotten on the ship yet! Yes, I was cheap, and insisted we take the tram. The powers that be were against me, however, when a delivery truck side-swiped a tram two in front of ours, and we got kicked off. So yes, in the end, I relented, adn we took a cab to the port.
Boarding was a breeze, and we made it on to the Celebrity Constellation. Both Saturday and Monday were days at sea, with a stop in Warnemunnde, "Gateway to Berlin." More on that later (though, not much more, since we didn't actually go into Berlin). But, its almost time for Bingo...gotta win that $5,000!
I hope everyone is recovering from the earthquake and hurricane. Seriously, if you have any more natural disasters between now and next Thursday when we get home, I may just stay on the ship, or in Amsterdam, or Iceland. Any of the three would be fine.
Stay tuned for tales of fun on the ship, and a few from Germany too!

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