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Hookers and Hookahs in Holland

Prostitutes in shop windows, drive-through brothels, and cannabis in coffeehouses--such are the wonders that attract mobs of yobs to the Netherlands.

Dutch prostitution and drugs

ABOVE: Within walking distance of this quiet canalside neighborhood, you can window-shop for sex in Amsterdam's Red Light District or buy marijuana in coffeehouses that have little in common with Starbucks.

The Dutch are known for pragmatism, tolerance, and trade. Put those three characteristics together in today's freewheeling society, and you get a nation that attracts thrill-seeking tourists with commercialized sex and soft drugs.

One fairly recent chapter in this story was written in October, 1999, when the Dutch Parliament overturned a 1912 law against brothels. A news report from the Associated Press explained the rationale behind Parliament's move to legalize what already existed:

The new law is aimed at guaranteeing cleaner and safer working conditions for the country's estimated 30,000 prostitutes and allowing police to focus their crackdowns on the employment of illegal immigrants and underaged girls. Prostitution is already legal in the Netherlands.

"This proposal overturns the ban on brothels and replaces it with a ban on child prostitution and exploitation of involuntary prostitution,'' said an official summary of the law. "It will enable municipalities to regulate voluntary prostitution and the position of prostitutes will be improved.''

Although bordellos have been illegal, they have long been allowed to operate in clearly defined areas such as the red light districts of Amsterdam and most other major cities, as long as they follow strict standards for health and fire safety.

And several years ago, Reuters reported that a Dutch brothel chain "hoped to open a branch at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport...to cater to stressed travelers." Local authorities were said to be receptive to the idea, although the bordello--to be known as the Yum Yum Caviar Club--would have to wait "until building work at the airport is completed and space in the departures area becomes available."

 (More recently, the brothel chain sued airport officials for failing to greenlight the project.)

Window-shopping for sex in Amsterdam

book coverIn Travels as a Brussels Scout, a highly readable book about the author's Grand Tour through today's European Community, Nick Middleton describes an evening in Amsterdam's Red Light District:

There were groups of young men, but also small bands of middle-aged couples taking the evening air and mixed groups of teenagers who giggled at the shop window displays.

The canal Oude Zijds Voorburgwal seemed to be where Amsterdam's red light district began. The crowds lingered and cars cruised slowly by, inching their way along the narrow towpaths on both sides of the water that were lined with terraces of towering housefronts.

Some of these buildings contained bars and coffe shops and clip joints with names like 'Banana,' but many were faced with door-shaped windows on to long thin rooms about the size of my hotel room.

Above each window was a red striplight. Behind the windows sat women, usually on tall stools. There were thin ones and fat ones, blonde ones and black ones. Some were silicon-aided, Pamela Anderson look-alikes, others had all the lumps, bumps, and curves they were born with, while a few sported paunches. Most of them wore white bras and knickers which glowed a luminous purple colour thanks to well-positioned ultraviolet tubes. It was looking at kinky psychedelic goldfish.

Some of the women looked very bored, some were combing their hair to pass the time, others were talking to older women who might have been their mothers. Most, however, were making an effort to attract customers.

If you caught their eye, they would smile alluringly, or worse still tap on the glass and beckon you to come in, just as if she was your long-lost frined inviting you for a coffee and a chat. These were real, live, laughing, smiling, hair-combing sex professionals. They were adept at looking as if they wanted it badly and wanted it with you. Now.

As an Englishman, I found it all a bit embarrassing. It was bad enough looking at these female-shaped pieces of meat, but when they saw you were watching and reacted accordingly and reacted accordingly it was all a bit too much. I didn't know what to do with myself, except to smile timidly and move on.

Middleton goes on to explain the Dutch government's rationale for sanctioning prostitutes:

No one has ever managed to get rid of the world's oldest profession, so why bother trying? Better to regulate it instead. There were health considerations to think about, labour conditions, public order, and of course another source of government revenue. Some said the love-ladies were just getting another pimp.

Drive-through brothels

Rick Steves, the American guidebook author and TV travel host, admits that he's never seen a prostitute in his home town but is fascinated by the "drama of well-worn women in a male-dominated world humiliating lonely men in grotty little rooms by charging them a day's wage for ten minutes of sexual fun." 

book coverIn his memoir, Rick Steves' Postcards from Europe, Steves points out that "Prostitution is everywhere in Europe. It always has been." As an example, he describes a daytime visit with a Dutch friend to a drive-through brothel in the polder country of tulips and windmills near Haarlem:

Hans then turns sharply, stopping at the gate of a large, fenced-in parking lot. There's a circular drive lined with covered bus-stop benches painted pink. From there a lane leads to what looks like a twenty-stall drive-through car wash. The sign reads "Tippelzone. Geopend van 21:00 tot 3:00."

The author's friend Hans explains: 

"This is a drive-in red-light district. Prostitutes. You say, 'Everything's so Dutch.' This is Dutch, too." 

Steves continues wistfully: 

I imagine a busy Saturday night with women stationed at each pink bench, a bumper-to-bumper parade of shoppers, and cars privately rocking in the drive-through stalls. I cling to memories of a time when morning rush hour in Holland featured intersections clogged with bikers--wooden shoes lashed to their handlebars--heading for the fields.

Although wooden shoes still keep some feet dry in the boggy fields, these days a tourist will more likely see them used as flower pots nailed to souvenir shop windowsills. That Dutch boy of my travel dreams is off smoking somewhere with the Swiss Miss...or waiting for a 21:00 Tippel.

Coffee and cannabis

"Soft drugs" such as marijuana and hashish are technically illegal in the Netherlands, but they're tolerated within certain limits. Small-scale production and use aren't prosecuted, and "coffeeshops" are allowed to sell cannabis as long as they're discreet. Imagine your local Starbucks with a hashish counter in the back where you can choose from a selection of your favorite leaves and smoke a joint with your Frappucino.

Thanks to this relaxed policy toward grass, Amsterdam attracts latter-day hippies from all over Europe (along with a fair-sized contingent from the U.S. and Canada). In Travels as a Brussels Scout, Nick Middleton describes being with a group of British acquaintances who were in Amsterdam on a drug holiday:

The soft drug culture was all around us, although most of the participants seemed to be foreigners. There was a fellow Englishman who worked in my hotel who always looked at the list when I asked for my key and said, "Mr.Middleton, yeah?"

"That's right," I would reply and he would counter, "Sorry, I won't ask next time. I've got a pretty shit memory and unfortunately I'm in the wrong place to get it back."

Rick Steves, too, has comments on the Amsterdam drug scene in his Postcards from Europe. He writes about a visit to the Grey Area Caf�, a coffeeshop near the Ann Frank House:

Alone with the younger guy, I ask him about the sign with a delivery boy on it.

"In Holland we have pot delivery services," he explains, "like you have pizza delivery in America. Older people take out or have it delivered."

Steves adds:

"This coffee shop would never be possible in the United States," I say.

"I know," Peter, the bartender, agrees. He shows me the snapshops of Woody Harrelson and Willy Nelson , each in the obscure little coffee shop, and continues, "America's two most famous pot smokers told me all about America."

Unfortunately, there's a dark side to drug policy in the Netherlands, which is based on tolerance without legalization: Organized crime reportedly is involved in the growing and distribution of marijuana, and more dangerous drugs such as "ecstasy" are becoming increasingly popular. For more on these problems, see David Downie's "Going Dutch" article in Salon. 

Beyond sex and drugs

By now, you may be ready to assume that the Netherlands is a Times Square with tulips, and that children and church groups should find another holiday destination in Europe. Not at all: Sex and cannabis are only a small part of the overall tourist scene, and you won't encounter much of either unless you go looking for it.

To start planning a trip to the Netherlands, see:

Amsterdam:

Amsterdam europeforvisitors.com
Browse an illustrated library of tourist links and articles about the Dutch capital.

A Day in Amsterdam europeforvisitors.com
If you're stuck at Schiphol Airport for more than a few hours, take the train into the city.

Schiphol Airport europeforvisitors.com
A brothel has been proposed for Amsterdam's international air gateway.

Elsewhere in the Netherlands:

Rotterdam  europeforvisitors.com
Our in-depth guide to Holland's second largest city includes a plethora of photos, practical advice, and articles about things to see and do. We also provide information about the Rotterdam Cruise Terminal. (Tip: If you're interested in modern architecture and urban design, Rotterdam should be at the top of your "cities to visit in Europe" list.)

Alkmaar Cheese Market europeforvisitors.com
If the dairy auction action seems too touristy, vist the world-famous organ in the Laurenskerk.

Keukenhof Gardens europeforvisitors.com
The largest flower garden in Holland (and the world) has more than 6,000,000 bulbs, including 1,000 varieties of tulips alone.