frank, tracey & i arrive early in amsterdam -the day before i am to come back home- and hope to have a long day of sightseeing. i am immediately impressed with the city; frank's 'red light guide' book had led me to believe that this town was going to be packed with potheads and prostitutes, but in fact the majority of the city is pretty decent. ;)

the train station was gorgeous; amsterdam seems to take pretty, old buildings and fashion them into practical uses. shopping malls look like castles...
the first stop on our journey was the Sex Museum. we were thinking this place would be tacky and cheap, but in fact it was 3 floors of 'sex through the ages'. photos dating from the 1800s, artifacts from the roman empire, and -yes- lewd drawings and movies. it was actually quite entertaining *and* educational. ;)

a few yards down the street is Dam Square (from which Amsterdam derives its name). it's a gathering spot filled with people, food, and beggars. the photo below right is actually a beggar pretending to be a statue; the longer he stands absolutely still, the more money seems to end up in his box.

after a bit more wandering around, we finally end up in the red light district. i am astounded at the number of 'coffeeshops' that line the street. (coffeeshops sell pot & hash, not coffee...) my 'red light guide' tells me what kind of clientele are in each of the coffeeshops, and what kind of drugs to expect in each. it's pretty amazing. we passed the hugest headshop i'd ever seen - i just had to take a photo:

and it was here in the red light district that tracey and i decided to permanently scar our bodies. ;) tracey made an appointment to get her eyebrow pierced, and i made an appointment to get a tattoo. this process, unfortunately, ended up eating into most of our day, but i'm glad i we did it. here's tracey's piercing in progress:

if you're interested in seeing my tattoo, you should click here

we then gave our bodies a well-needed break and took an hour-long glass-topped boat ride along the canals of amsterdam. we saw many great sights -fabulous architecture, magnificent churches, Anne Frank's house- and i was cursing the late hour and the darkness; all of the photos i took on the ride were underexposed.

there were so many things in amsterdam that we didn't get to do -i was hoping to see the modern art museum, for instance- but i had such a good time that i'll gladly come back to finish my tour sometime in the near future. we took the long way back to the train station through the red light district, and witnessed the scantily-clad prostitues in their red-lit windows and encountered men hawking live sex shows.

this day in amsterdam was my final one in the netherlands. frank, tracey, and i got back to scheveningen exhausted, and went to bed early in order to catch my flight the next morning.

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