- Bikes, Canals, Art, Anne Frank, Drugs and Prostitution. Shocked by tolerance.
I went there with my girlfriend Melissa, we had two nights visiting a new place, an interesting city. I think we both had an idea about what Amsterdam was famous for; something about Red lights, coffee shops and tulips, but didn't really have any idea what to expect.
The first night we saw a man playing double bass and singing some blues, it was beautiful.
The next morning we walked to the Annefrankhuis, the place where Anne Frank, her family and some friends hid during Nazi occupation in Amsterdam. It is now an amazing museum, with quite an emotional journey into the history of a little, talented, young lady. I was really hit by a book, a list, of all the jews taken from Amsterdam, that was several inches thick and was written in very small type. A list of the 100,000 people taken and killed. I didn't really understand how big the holocaust actually could have been.
We then moved on, quite stirred but excited to see the rest of the city.
It was lovely. Bicycles and canals, everywhere was beautiful.
We decided to go on a free tour, to see the city and hear some history. It was taken by an enthusiastic Aussie bloke who seemed to love Amsterdam and know about it's history.
The first stop was the red light district.
We wandered into it, a clear boundary with sex shops appearing everywhere, it was about 2pm. I tried to keep my eyes directly ahead, on the tour guide or on the floor, but still I caught glimpses of women in windows, under-dressed, waiting, I saw men walking into a 'live porn show' and I saw dark alleys. The tour guide explained what was happening, how over the years this district had been tied to parts of the church who also profited through it, and how the industry was legal and taxable; encouraged by the government.
We found this heartbreaking and shocking. Men finding joy and fulfilment in sex and lust, women finding hope in selling themselves, all the while losing self-worth. I have an image of one woman sat in a window that I doubt I will forget. It was so sad.
Sad that women can feel they need to work like this, that they want to work like this and that men can treat women in this way. I really didn't understand how people would live like that. It gave me a new shocking insight into the world of the sex industry, that includes prostitution, pornography, trafficking and addiction. I want to stay away. Would Jesus stay away?
The next part of the tour took us to see the fabled 'coffee shops' of Amsterdam, something I have heard more about from stories at home. Places where you can go and smoke cannabis across the city. The smell walking past the shops was not subtle, showing young tourists (mostly) sitting and enjoying the high. I think we also found this quite sad. More people finding peace, hope, joy in something that is in fact very empty and unfulfilling.
The tour went on to show us other parts of the city, like the Jewish quarter where Rembrandt lived, old buildings that were the gates to the city and Napolean's little brother's pad. It is a beautiful city and I would have loved to see more of the Art that it had to offer. However we left a little shocked and sad.
I was most shocked by the pride of all this tolerance. The encouraging of prostitution and drug use.
It was very sad, pretty shocking and seemingly hopeless.
And sad that people our age go to Amsterdam for all it has to offer.
When I got home, I met a woman at church who was from Amsterdam, apparently Christians from all over Holland had met in Amsterdam during March and prayed that Jesus would come back to Amsterdam and make it his home.
That is my prayer.
I thought you get Tulips from Hamsterjam.
