|
"HOLLAND" Page 1, 2, 3,
4, 5
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."
 In 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.
(TIP: Read my Rick Steves'
Postcards in Europe review with excerpts and my
interview with Rick Steves.)
Next Page > Coffee
and cannabis
> Page 1, 2, 3,
4, 5
| |
|
"Best of the Web"
- Forbes and The Washington Post
Our most popular topics:
Need a car in Europe?
Auto Europe
guarantees the lowest rental
rates for standard cars, sports cars, SUVs, luxury cars,
chauffered sedans, and RVs. Its Web site also has driving information
for 38 countries.
If
you live outside the EU, a
tax-free
Renault or
Peugeot tourist lease can be cheaper than renting.
Minimum driver age is 18, there' s no upper age limit, and rates include
insurance. See:
Short-term car leasing.
Traveling by train?
Rail Europe
has schedules, maps, and guides for 50+ European railroads. (Residents
of North and Central America can buy tickets and rail passes
online.)
From Europe for Cruisers:
Travel and cruise news:
Europe for Visitors Blog
|
|
