Holland is truly a land of balance: there are beautiful cathedrals and centuries old waterways, but there is also a seamier side of life that everyone takes very much in stride. I had three days to explore Holland and I was determined to make the most of it. I arrived from Germany on a Thursday night and spent Friday working with my peers at our distribution center in Utrecht.
After work, I grabbed a cab and headed downtown Utrecht to wander around and soak up the culture. One of the most fascinating things I learned was that Hollanders bike everywhere. I saw more bikes that trip than I did cars. I had the taxi driver let me off downtown and I started wandering the streets and exploring the little shops. As I was walking I smelled pot and looked around in amazement that someone would be so blatant as to have weed on the main drag of Utrecht. Then I spied the “coffee shop” and remembered I was in a land where pot was legal.
I wandered down one side street and as I glanced in one of the windows, I was uncomfortable seeing a woman lounging in her underwear watching TV in front of an open window. After walking by, I looked back down the street and saw the red light above the window and realized that Amsterdam wasn’t the only town with a red light district. I enjoyed dinner that night in a little cafe along a canal and it was incredibly peaceful to sit and enjoy the scenery.
The next day my day started early when I took a train from Utrecht into Amsterdam. Arriving in downtown Amsterdam, I soon found the tourist district and wandered through streets full of stores selling all the latest in souvenirs from wooden shoes to ties emblazoned with windmills. I have to admit that I did give into temptation and bought my share of tourist trinkets. Wandering a little farther I started to feel a little high and as I sniffed I realized that the air was full of the distinctive scent of weed.All around me were American tourists going gaga over illicit drugs being freely sold.
Wandering a little farther I came to Amsterdam’s famed red light district and rather than being titillated, I was saddened at the site of beautiful young women selling themselves in store front windows like puppies on display at the pound. Some women danced energetically trying to attract attention and others were lethargic with deadened eyes that shown they’d given up on their quest for “love” and had resigned themselves to whatever the world had to dish out. One of the strangest parts of the red light district was a courtyard surrounding a church. Ringing this ancient–but still active–holy place were windows full of young women displaying their wares.
Leaving the red light district, I caught a water taxi and toured Amsterdam’s ancient canals. Our tour guide explained that many of Amsterdam’s houses leaned because they were sunk on wooden pilings into the soft earth and if they were not sunk deep enough the houses would lean. We wove through narrow canals lined by beautiful turreted buildings that evoked a sense of wonder from this American girl. We floated past Anne Frank’s house and I was amazed and heartened that the lines to see where her brave family had lived during the Nazi occupation stretched for blocks.All too soon my day in the wonderland of Amsterdam came to a close and it was time to fly back to the States. Amsterdam is definitely a place of contrasts and the balance seems to work well for them, but I’m not sure I’ll ever be comfortable in a country where ancient works of art share space with women degrading themselves in store windows.