Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Sav: We woke up, steeling ourselves for what was likely to be a tough morning. The Anne Frank House awaited. We picked up a couple croissants and cappuccinos and walked over. As expected, it was a heavy museum.

Very rarely do we decide not to talk about stuff on the blog, but for this museum in particular it feels as though describing it will never do it any justice. While informative, we were told prior to our visit that Otto Frank wanted people to go into the house not thinking of a museum, but rather the lives that were actually lived here. This combined with how intense everything was left us both a bit stricken.

Meag: We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling along the canals, stopping to read plaques on statues and for the odd candy shop.

This evening we had tour number three! We have been on as many walking tours in Amsterdam as we have in the rest of our entire trip. This one was a Red Light District tour with Dutch-Canadian tour guide Lee. She was so open and had a great dry sense of humour. The tour was fascinating and eye opening, to say the least. We learned a lot about the history of the district and about how it works today. The women rent out the windows from landlords and are all registered individual businesses. Apparently they have to go through this whole process including a long interview with a social worker, prove proficiency in Dutch or English and be older than 21. There is of course still stigma and illegal prostitution going on. It is not all rainbows and butterflies. We also discussed the gentrification of the area, with expensive apartments and restaurants right next door to red light windows and sex shops. On one street in particular, we stood beside an arcade, across from an expensive restaurant and a juice bar, all interspersed with red light windows. After your lap dance you can go enjoy some fancy oysters! Another surprising juxtaposition was with the church. There is a big old Catholic Church right across the laneway from a whole series of red light windows. Literally ten feet apart. We discussed it a bit in our tour and we get why this relationship worked out historically, but I think we’re still grappling with all of it. As Sav said though, we’re taking the city with a grain of salt and accepting it for what it is.

S: We went around to a few different restaurants after and finally settled on just ordering some take-away fries from a literal hole in a wall restaurant. We sat near Dam Square and the national monument while eating and observing a protest. We stepped a little closer to the protest. It was something about the war in Syria, though all spoken in Dutch so our level of understanding was nothing. We decided that it was time to retire, so we walked back the Bulldog, discussing the war along the way.

S&M