Sara DobsonAmsterdam – A City with two Faces
May 13th 2008 08:38
Amsterdam is a city with two faces, a night face and a day face. By day you can visit some of Europe’s finest museums such as the Van Gogh and Rembrandt as well as the famous Anne Frank’s house. It is also the home to the Heineken Brewery. At night, the city’s famous Red Light District comes to life with the tourists coming to see the scantily clad women in the shop windows and take in a live sex show.
Amsterdam is built around 165 canals so one of the best ways to get an overview of the city is on a canal cruise. A one-hour cruise will give you an overview showing you some of the most interesting sights, while telling you the story of the city and its beautiful architecture.
If you are into beer, particularly Heineken, you can visit the Heineken Experience where you get a tour of the old brewing rooms, glass staircase and copper vats. The highlight in my opinion is the ‘Bottle Ride’ where you are strapped into a seat and shaken around while watching a film on the beer making process, from bottling to its final destination in shops. The purpose of which is to give you an idea of what it is like to be a bottle of beer. At the end you get a free Heineken and Heineken glass to take away with you.
The Red Light district known as De Wallen and located near Dam Square, comes to life at night. The brightly lit windows light up the scantily clad women advertising their wares, while the busy streets are full of window shopping tourists. There are plenty of live sex shows if you are looking for something to view without an interactive component try Casa Rosa (OZ Achterburgwal) and the infamous Moulin Rouge (Oudezijds Achterburgwal 5-7). I found the sex shows a bit clinical myself, we were herded into a theatre where there were just rows of seats looking down onto a revolving stage where men and women came out and had uninspiring looking sex with bored looks on their faces.
One of the Amsterdam’s is most important site’s is Anne Frank’s house. Most people are familiar with Anne Frank’s diary, which recorded the experience of the Jewish family in hiding during World War Two. The house has been restored and the public can view the secret annexe that hid the Frank and the Von Pel families for two years from 1942, until they were discovered in 1944, and sent to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps. As I climbed the stairway toward the bookshelf the hid the doorway into the secret annexe I had a feeling of awe at being in the house that Anne Frank wrote the famous diary I had read years ago in my youth. Once inside the annexe I was surprised how big the living area actually was. The area had been carefully restored to portray how the families lived. You can walk through the very bedrooms, living room and kitchen that families occupied over six decades ago. The rest of the house, which was the location of Otto Franks Company, now contains a museum displaying pages from the original diary as well as pictures of the families. The canal house located at 263 Prinsengracht is a chilling reminder of one of the world’s most hateful crimes.
Amsterdam has a reputation of being the sex and drug capital of the world but in fact it is a beautiful old city with stunning 14th century architecture cobbled streets and museums. Make sure you have enough time to see both faces of this city.
Amsterdam is built around 165 canals so one of the best ways to get an overview of the city is on a canal cruise. A one-hour cruise will give you an overview showing you some of the most interesting sights, while telling you the story of the city and its beautiful architecture.
If you are into beer, particularly Heineken, you can visit the Heineken Experience where you get a tour of the old brewing rooms, glass staircase and copper vats. The highlight in my opinion is the ‘Bottle Ride’ where you are strapped into a seat and shaken around while watching a film on the beer making process, from bottling to its final destination in shops. The purpose of which is to give you an idea of what it is like to be a bottle of beer. At the end you get a free Heineken and Heineken glass to take away with you.
The Red Light district known as De Wallen and located near Dam Square, comes to life at night. The brightly lit windows light up the scantily clad women advertising their wares, while the busy streets are full of window shopping tourists. There are plenty of live sex shows if you are looking for something to view without an interactive component try Casa Rosa (OZ Achterburgwal) and the infamous Moulin Rouge (Oudezijds Achterburgwal 5-7). I found the sex shows a bit clinical myself, we were herded into a theatre where there were just rows of seats looking down onto a revolving stage where men and women came out and had uninspiring looking sex with bored looks on their faces.
Prostitute in the window
One of the Amsterdam’s is most important site’s is Anne Frank’s house. Most people are familiar with Anne Frank’s diary, which recorded the experience of the Jewish family in hiding during World War Two. The house has been restored and the public can view the secret annexe that hid the Frank and the Von Pel families for two years from 1942, until they were discovered in 1944, and sent to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps. As I climbed the stairway toward the bookshelf the hid the doorway into the secret annexe I had a feeling of awe at being in the house that Anne Frank wrote the famous diary I had read years ago in my youth. Once inside the annexe I was surprised how big the living area actually was. The area had been carefully restored to portray how the families lived. You can walk through the very bedrooms, living room and kitchen that families occupied over six decades ago. The rest of the house, which was the location of Otto Franks Company, now contains a museum displaying pages from the original diary as well as pictures of the families. The canal house located at 263 Prinsengracht is a chilling reminder of one of the world’s most hateful crimes.
Amsterdam has a reputation of being the sex and drug capital of the world but in fact it is a beautiful old city with stunning 14th century architecture cobbled streets and museums. Make sure you have enough time to see both faces of this city.
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Comment by AmyHuang
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I liked Amsterdam. It was really a funky place. A friend of mine lives there now, and of course it's different when you are a tourist compared to actually living there.
Comment by Sara Dobson
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Comment by Sara Dobson
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Who took it?