Images of Amsterdam

Lovely canal houses


Madame Tussaud Wax Museum at the Dam


The Royal Palace at the Dam


Red Light District


Wooden shoes known as "klompen"


Tulips

Typical Amsterdam scene - canal houses and bikes on the railings

The Rijksmuseum

When one talks of Amsterdam, the images that conjure to mind are of the Red Light District where women are selling their wares from behind glass windows; coffee shops which sell no coffee but marijuana to space cakes and mushrooms with hallucinating properties; and gay parade as Holland was the first country in the world to recognize same-sex unions.

I remember a very good friend of mine who belongs to a religious order who was shocked when I told her that I was dating a Dutch guy. Her idea of Holland was that of Sodom and Gomorrah where all sense of morality has disappeared. Anyway, she would later be pacified when she finally met my boyfriend (who's now my husband) and all impressions of Holland has turned for completely the opposite of her initial misgivings.

To an outsider, Amsterdam is the place to be. It's the place where everything is possible from drugs to prostitutes or that gay experience which is normally taboo in one's country. Strangely enough, the Dutch are the last people one can expect at the Red Light District nor be at those coffee shops for drugs. It is mostly foreigners who frequent Amsterdam for these thrills to which this city has adopted a tolerant attitude.

Apart from the stuffs I mentioned above, there are other things to seek out when in Amsterdam which are far worth one's time. A walk into the city is like being transported back in time as those canal houses, most of which are at least several hundred years old are just amazingly beautiful. There are several museums which are worth visiting such as the Rijksmuseum which houses some of the best collections in the world from Rembrandt to Vermeer amongst others, the Van Gogh Museum which has the single biggest collection of Van Goghs in the world, or if you are interested in some bits of World War II history, a visit to Anne Frank's Museum to get a feel of how this girl lived while in hiding from the Nazi's. A visit to Madame Tussaud at the Dam is also worthwhile if you want to have fascination for famous people immortalized in wax or better yet, see some strange museums which can only be found in Amsterdam like the Torture Museum or Sex Museum.