Amsterdam

Falling behind here! Haven't felt much like writing lately. It's been a while since we were in Amsterdam. Sally myself and Nicolas headed up to Amsterdam for the day from Belgium a while back now... I've met a few Neatherlanders (not in Holland funny enough) who dislike the reputation of Amsterdam being a drug and sex haven, and would prefer to be recognized for their laissez-faire attitude. I'm sure if we got to spend more time we could have appreciated more of what Amsterdam and the Neatherlands had to offer. With that in mind, the country-side that we got to see was beautiful with lots of windmills and farms and flowers. In the city, they have lanes dedicated to bicycles everywhere, and I don't mean like in Vancouver where you have a 30cm wide death lane for cars to play target practive with. I mean the lanes for cars are almost an afterthought! The bike parking lots are huge and people will ride anything on two wheels. Women in dresses and guys in suits willl ride even the ugliest and oldest bikes. It's simply about transportation. Very smart, very ecologically friendly and very healthy. Good thinking on their part. On the subject of good thinking, marijuana is decriminalized as is many aspects of western living such as prostitution. The prostitution method in the red light district is pretty neat. The women rent a small room with a window facing the street and give suggestive looks to the guys who walk by. I've never had so many women come on to me in so little time! The groups of young Brits were the worst going from girl to girl, debating, bargaining and whatever else... Ew. Also during the day which is when we were there, it was mostly the fuglies who were renting the rooms and themselves, so not too much looked appetizing on the menu ;o)
As for the drugs in the city, it wasn't the green stickers on cafe windows indicating weed was ok that I found weird, but the stickers that said "No Drugs". Shouldn't that go unsaid? In the "cafes" you could get a menu of all sorts of different strains to tickle your fancy. At least that's what I'm told :)
We went to a bar to get beer (as you can't get it in the "cafes" which is a drag). We picked "Teasers" which advertised "Babes and Beer" and was one of the best choices in the history of time. For Nicolas' sake I can't explain why and I couldn't take any pictures :( But suffice it to say, it was worth the triple priced beers. Even Sally was amazed.
I was having camera trouble anyway at this point so pictures of Amsterdam are lacking. I had to borrow Nicolas camera for the day. I did get some shots of the leaning buildings I found quite hilarious. As the Neatherlands are below sea level, I guess the land is quite soft so this happens quite often. It was funny to walk into a bar or cafe sober and feel like you'de smoked one to your head before ordering anything - not that I would know how that feels.