Amsterdam

I have officially set foot in Northern Europe. Today we arrived in Amsterdam and it was quite a beautiful sail in. It was the first time I’ve been through a lock. How this works is the ship goes through one gate and then they close the gate and lower the water. Once lowered the gate in front of the ship opens and we’re able to sail through the channel.

Holland is definitely a land of windmills. The amount of windmills lining the canal was staggering – they’ve obviously found answers to alternative energy. The other “green” practice that I was very proud of was the amount of bicycles in use. The city was full of bikes and all the roads had bike lanes – definitely a huge cycling culture.

We didn’t arrive in Amsterdam until 2:30 in the afternoon and I went on an organized ship tour. We went on a walk through the historical part of the city and then took a canal cruise through the ring of canals lining the city. I saw the house where Anne Frank’s family hid which was quite a surreal experience bringing that ugly part of history to life. I also visited a secret Catholic Church which were required after the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic’s weren’t allowed to build churches, but they were still allowed to practice their religion – quite weird to walk into a church that looks like a stock-house on the outside.

After the tour, I had a little over an hour to do some more exploring on my own. Of course, I went to the Red Light District – don’t worry, I didn’t purchase any services! I actually came to the conclusion that Sunday evening around 7:00 p.m. is either a very busy time for prostitutes or very dead – most all of the curtains I passed were drawn. I was actually quite surprised at the varying quality of the women. There were some absolutely gorgeous women, but then there were really old dumpy grandmothers as well. I missed all of the sex shows that a lot of the crew went to because I had to play shows – from the descriptions I think it’s a good thing I had to work!

The other interesting thing about Amsterdam is the aroma of marijuana. It’s absolutely everywhere you walk and they even sell cannabis lollipops! I didn’t partake in this either, because I want the company to pay for my flight home on Saturday. I would love to come back to Amsterdam and the Netherlands another time to do some more exploring of their culture – 4 hours just wasn’t enough!

Only 5 more days!!