Amsterdam pt2...into the city

So now we are all settled into our residence for the night and decide to head out on the town. Amsterdam is a about 20 minutes away and we are driving a rental car we got from Germany. Johnnie seems to think that the car will be vandalized, since we have plates from Germany, if we park it in the city. So best we park outside and take the metro into town. So we head to the station about 3 stops away and brave the cold for a 10 minute wait for the next train.

A few minutes later, we pulled up into central station. Central station is not some underground receptacle like Penn Station NYC. It´s like a bunch of street cars that all seem to converge in one area. the streets are filled with cars, trains, pedestrians and bicycle riders. I swear to make a fortune, you can open a bike repair shop there. All the bikes seem a bit outdated by American standards. No deep treaded tires on mountain bikes or 15 speed long distance riders. Seems like bikes with a need for a a wicker basket. They do have cute little bells to warn you when they are approaching you from the rear.

Amsterdam is relatively flat and most of the area is under sea level like New Orleans. Most of the area is protected by dams or what they call dikes. These dams are fortified but Johnnie tells me one broke in the 50´s and a lot of people died fro the flooding. Yippee! So take a look at a map of Amsterdam...there are nothing but canals everywhere. You are crossing water whether you like it or not. i guess the canals are for the drunks to have a place to urinate at a moments notice or to wash out the streets after a profitable night in the red light district.

Speaking of the Red light district....it´s INSANE!!! An outside shopping mall for prostitution. It´s not a strip mall like Willow lawn, it´s more like a labyrinth of debauchery an ill repute. As you wind down a main canal, there are windows...small rooms with a full length window where the girls...and some boys who are girls...stand there in bikinis and such trying to entice the casual passerby to taste their wares. black, white, tall or short...real or fake...all within footsteps of one another. And i here that it´s so accepted, the cops know the girls and patrol to make sure they are OK. They even have the area clearly marked on city maps for your conveince.

Some of the more interesting things I saw was the banana bars. email me if you want to know what goes on there but WOW!!!

anyhow...soon we were out of the district and passing by one of a million sex shops with all their wares in the store window...and i mean anything you can imagine or have a nightmare about. Sickening and exciting at the same time. We turned a corner and in one breath...a nice whiff of the coffeehouses that are strategically placed in prime spots around the area. We happened past a corner spot called the Jolly Joker. we joked about going to get some coffee rather than something else...but the stench was too thick for one to see the actual bar. After more questions, i found that there are some weird laws here in Holland. It´s illegal to grow marijuana. It is NOT illegal to posses a small amount of it. It is tolerated to be sold...hence the shops but the small amount you can buy at a time. So the question is...if it illegal to grow...then how do the shops get it to sell it? I am sure if I had taken the time to sit back and inhale the sweet smells of nature´s own, I would have spent an eternity thinking on that matter.

So with my mind full of visions to make Rick James lick his lips...we decided to call it a night and head back to our places for a night of sleep and more discovery the next day...maybe i will write more on that but for now here are the pic: