My European Vacation - Day 12 - Sobering visit

Despite our thoughts that the night would be wild with loud noises - it did not turn out that way. I put my ear plugs in before bed and when I awoke there they were - lying in bed with me, but not in my ears. What happened? who knows.

/i decided to let M have a bit of a sleep in and I would go out geocaching. Might as well walk around this crazy city and see a bit of it. Well at 8:30 in the morning - there is NO ONE around. Well yes - there are people, but not many. I made a quick trip to the cache only to discover that it is NOT there. Yes - I was at the right spot. Crap.

Had to walk through the red light district again and yep - there were ladies out waiting for the morning crowd!!!!

Back to the hotel - collected M and logged that the cache was GONE. We had breakfast and then did a bit of walking around. Visited another cache - a tiny one. Let's just say that M is NOT subtle - I am sure the entire street could hear her - "oh that is so tiny - it is so cute". And we are standing by a wrought iron fence. I am sure they all wondered what we were doing.

A bit of shopping and then back to the quilt store - the one with the traditional fabrics. While I would like to have purchased a kit - I finally decided that the kit was too expensive and the fabrics are very jumpily. I bought some small pieces and will make a wall hanging. That will be my fabric memory of Holland.

Back to the hotel to regroup and drop off our stuff. At least our hotel is right in the center of the action. But there are TONS and TONS of people. The chaos is insane. What with the street trams, the cars, the taxis, the people on bicycles, the bike taxis, andd the pedestrians - well it is TOTAL CHAOS. After a while - it gets tiring!!!!!

And the smell from the coffee shops - well you could get high just standing beside some of them. I mean the smell of weed is EVERYWHERE in this town!!!!! M went into H & M (a North American clog hint store) to shop. While she was inside I ws watching the square across the street. I noticed a number of "statues" which in fact were people dressed up. Some of them were dressed like roman gladiators, Darth Vador, Freddy Kruger, a wolf and a chicken. At one time I think I counted 13 of these characters. Now across the square is Madame Trousseaus so perhaps that is why they are there?????

Here are some of our observations about Amsterdam

1. it is a dirty city (garbage everywhere) and while they try to clean it up - they can't keep up
2. No toilets on the street and hence people pee in public places (I was in a building and TWO men peed while I ws walking along - ICK ICK ICK!!!!!
3. With the prostitution, drugs - it just brings a different kind of person to Amsterdam that while we still feel safe - it is not attractive
4. There is WATER everywhere. I mean there are canals everywhere (and I learned some interesting facts about this town today on one of my caches)
5. The food is not that great. OK - by whose standards????? Well we have eaten OK, but nothign special. I know - we need to try the pancaes, but honestly - everything is so dirty that you don't feel like eating. (I know - coming from me - that says a lot!!!)
6. TOO much chaos - people, bikes, bells ringing, or bells clanging - I mean you step off the sidwalk at the wrong time - you are taking your life into a dangerous situation
7. Bugs - OK - so we can't see the bugs, but we are getting bitten??? Bed bugs???? I hope not. But I have several big bites on my leg and two on my arm and one on each die of my eyebrows (OK - those were from the mosquitos the other night
8. You would NOT want to park your car if you are inebriated. Some of the parking spots are RIGHT along side the canal. So close - you actualy have to exit the car from the passenger side (if you are the driver). I would be so afraid of ending up in the canal.
9. There are lots and lots of people "begging" for money. All these statue guys, the religious people, the blind organ vendor guy - I mean - they are everywhere
10. If you want sex toys - this is the place to buy them. The shops are everywhere and very open with their advertising. No worry - I didn't visit any of them.
11. Oh yes - I will include an 11th. Beer - it is acceptable to drink beer at any time of the day here and openly on the street. I mean we saw beer bottles in the garbage cans. This is a wild and CRAZY city.

Now onto our afternoon visit. We have decided that we are NOT the type to visit palaces and boring museums full of paintings (although we made an exception for the Louvre). But we like to visit places so we picked the Anne Frank Museum. There was an hour wait, but it went pretty quickly. Yep - M didn't complain. We were told NO PICTURES when we went in and we respected that. The museum is set up incredibly well - the displays are few, but the message is so POWERFUL. Just hard to imagine them all living in that tiny little space for 2 years and then to be caught. And for Anne to die one month before the liberation. I mean we were both moved deeply. Not just by Anne's story, but the entire idea of the Jews and their plight. We just do not realize how lucky we are today. Although I know that racism and other prejudices exist (those are not the best words, but all I can think of at the moment). It goes with my philosophy - we all need to be MORE TOLERANT of each other. If you don't like something - let it go - don't belittle the other person or whatever.