Amster(damn)

Alright, great, good, and ugly of this city... The walking tour as always spot on. The guide led us through the history of Amsterdam as a corrupt religious city built around the water. We saw the Old Church stationed in the center of the red light district, where sailors could sin and then quickly be forgiven before heading back out to sea. The red light district is awkward at best, sparsely dressed women staring at you out of their windows. First question, are they allowed books in there? Can they be on their phones? What do they do with their time outside the window? Apparently the women are very protected, belong to a union, pay taxes, just like everyone else! Cheers girls! Next we saw the oldest Dutch West Indies trading building, heard the Reformation history, heard a bit about the Anabaptist rebellion and their hellacious slaughtering, saw one of the most gorgeous buildings in town... An old post office, we heard about the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam and how it impacted the Jewish population, including Anne Frank and her family. We saw the bookstore hiding their safespot and were reminded a little of her history and her father's decision to publish her diary. And all day long were dodging the extremely assertive cyclists. Pedestrians have the least protected rights in this city. We went to the Heineken brewery tour, the Van Gogh museum which was incredible! We also ate insane delicious Dutch cuisine and went on a very weather heavy canal tour! We are almost finished with the trip finishing up in London for the next few days!!!

Love,
A&M