London to Amsterdam

After a warm welcome from our Contiki crew, we head for the White Cliffs of Dover and cross the Channel via ferry to Calais, France on our way to Holland and its capital, Amsterdam for the evening and a visit at the infamous "Red Light District". We checked in at Hotel Inntel Zaanstad, in Provincialeweg.

A vibrant Dutch city of tidy gingerbread houses, picturesque canals, and rich in art, history and long on tolerance. The entire center city itself is one large historic district of restored buildings, most of which date from Amsterdam’s golden age in the 17th century. Amsterdam was founded in the mid-13th century as a mere dam across the Amstel River. Its fortunes were stimulated by the 1602 founding of the Dutch East India Company whose ships and sailors brought back treasures from the Far East. Soon a network of canals helped transform the city into a huge port. Square-riggers could unload cargoes of silks, Moluccan spices, Chinese Export porcelain, and other riches for barge transport straight into the warehouses and merchant’s elegant canal houses.

Our first night out, we visited the "Red Light District", a popular tourist attraction. We came across Hard Rock Cafe and seeing some people from the tour group, Alan and I decided to taste their local beer, Amstel light. Angela, Geneva and Matthew, traveling together from Sydney, Australia joined us (Alan, Julie, Claire and Jose) on the table. The three Aussies are apprentice chefs for Qantas Airlines. Angela specializes desserts and pastries while Geneva and Matthew, on main meal courses. A special excursion was arrange to see a passion play at Casa Rosa. I have seen a lot of these in my years, (they are all the same), so I declined and opt to stroll the district instead with Alan, Julie, Claire and Jose. (Besides for 50 Dfl or $33.33, won't you rather be a part of the act?)

The neighborhood is a maze of alleys with rose-lit windows and a girl on display in each one. Display is definitely the operative word, considering the costumes of leather and lace that the women almost have on. These are government-licensed prostitutes and certainly no local resident appears shocked by the prostitutes or even by the unsavory characters loitering on corners. Elderly ladies live in the neighborhood and plenty of other respectable folks, too. Less respectable are the district’s pornography shops (their windows full of X-rated videos and sex paraphernalia’s) and not to forget, the live sex shows. Outside these theaters are barkers who know a few words in 25 different languages -- and you can just imagine what few works they are. Oude Kerk, the oldest Gothic church stands in the middle of the Red Light district. It may seem strange that the neighborhood of the city’s oldest religious monument also house practitioners of the world’s oldest profession. But over the centuries' sailors returning to this Netherlands port traditionally came to worship at the Oude Kerk and, being lusty young men, they also pursued matters less ethereal.

My first night out was strictly sightseeing and after a while, we decided to have a drink at the so-called brown cafes, (named for their wooden furnishings and wood-paneled walls mellowed to a golden hue by centuries of tobacco smoke). Heineken beer brewed in Amsterdam since 1864 was the choice for the night. We had to choose a table outside since a haze of pungent smoke wafted from this pub that also serve marijuana and hashish for smoking on the premises. (Patrons actually order it from a menu.) We all got home by 12 midnight. Alan and I decided to have a beer or two at the bar with new found friends Matthew and Geneva. Chris, Andee and Lauren, another Aussie, joined us for a late night caper.

Sept. 6

After a good breakfast, and playing our morning song "....Wake up! It’s a beautiful morning ...", (this song will be our theme song every morning for the rest of our tour), our tour continued to Amsterdam with an orientation tour of the city. We visited Coster Diamonds for a diamond cutting and polishing exhibition. They are the creators of diamonds such as the Koh-i-noor for Queen Victoria. The Lucullan, 181.15 carats, which is the largest rough diamond was on display. For more than 400 years, Amsterdam has been associated with diamonds. Here our guide showed us the different cuts and how to determine the quality of the diamond. Diamonds were later shown to us at the showroom for those interested in buying. (They take VISA and MasterCard.) Colin and Lianne from Johannesburg, South Africa were not impressed. Their country is also the biggest producers of diamonds. After the tour, we had a choice of seeing Rijkmuseum, which houses the largest and most important collection of art in the Netherlands and the focus, of course, is on the Dutch master -- Rembrandt and Van Gogh; the Heineken Brewery Museum and Anne Frank Huis. The LA gang wanted to see Anne Frank house. They say the The Diary of Anne Frank, written by a teenage Jewish girl during her two years of hiding in this building sold more than 13 million copies in 50 languages. The summary of the story is, on July 6, 1942, the Franks and another Jewish family went into hiding to avoid being deported to German concentration camps. Anne, the youngest daughter, had been given a diary for her 13th birthday in 1942. With the eyes of a child and the writing skills of a girl who hoped one day to be a writer, she chronicled life in hiding, the continued persecution of the Jews and the progress of the war. On August 4, 1944, the Franks were discovered by the German police and deported on the last transport to Auschwitz. Only the father survived the concentration camps and when he returned to Amsterdam, a former employee gave him Anne’s diary, which had been left behind when the police arrested the family. Now she lives forever through her diary, which has immortalized her ordeal.

I wander around a little bit and I was amazed at the network of canals -- 160 to be exact, spanned by 1,281 bridges. Alan and I chose a wide, flat-bottomed tour boat with a glass top for our canal tour. Along the banks of most of the canals stand rows of Amsterdam’s trim, narrow canal houses. Capping the tops are gables festooned with ornaments. The most striking features are their gables. I eventually learned to identify the gable types as point, spout, step, neck, and bell, but for the most part, I was content just to stare. Amsterdammers not only live in the city of water, but sometimes dwell right on it. Houseboats line many banks. Our guide explained that Amsterdam lies largely below sea level. Without the dikes on the North Sea coast, he said, it would disappear under water. After tour, we hanged-out in Dam Square waiting for our 11:30 bus pick-up. I was in trance to see people wearing business suits pedaling on a bicycle. Women in high heels pedaling around on a bike! There are over half a million bicycles and almost all of them are old-fashioned one-speeds. Wish Los Angeles was like this.