Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Amsterdam and the Red Light District

Today we took a road trip to Amsterdam. We set out to visit Nemo Science Museum which was so much fun for the kids (and us, honestly).
We took a water taxi to the Centrum. Good God, that place is chaotic! So many people and so much stuff to see. It was quite overwhelming.
After dinner we decided to walk back to the car which led us right through the Red Light District.
We had been teasing Andy for weeks that we would take him. Eric took him down an alley to see what the fuss is all about. At 14, I'm sure this is one thing to be checked off his bucket list. At first he was scared but then he relented after a lot of arm twisting (not). Little did I know that when we parked at 12:00 noon we had actually parked at the edge of the red light district.
As we walked, the houses with "red" porch lights were coming on and the shows were getting started. Unfortunately, the boys all got an eye full as we passed (inadvertently) several peep shows on the way to the car. There were several women getting primped in their tiny panties in all of the windows. There were others just laying casually in their bed right on the street in the window. Unfortunately you couldn't take photos but I managed a couple from a distance :) don't judge me as a parent. My three sons saw more today than most kids see in a lifetime. Note- when visiting souvenir stores in Amsterdam, don't take the kids. There are more XXX rated items than a Spencers at the mall. Also, when passing coffee shops find a creative way to convince the kids that they ARE NOT like Starbucks!
Here's a few pics and videos of our day:



Nemo building. Super cool.


The rooftop at Nemo



Water taxi



Tall ship


Cool row houses on the water in Amsterdam


Andy in the Centrum

YouTube Video

360 view





This place reeked each time we walked by.


Gerrit sitting on a shroom


Gerrit on the water taxi


Sorry. Couldnt resist a photo op.


Yes, the red light district.

YouTube Video

Saying goodbye to the big boys. They returned fairly quickly.


Eric got caught!



Thousands of bikes lining the streets


Poor Andy. He didn't want me to take this pic.

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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