It is a cruel parody of what it used to be. The pious uptight locals should put a big notice over Dam square saying 'Welcome to Plastic DisneyDam, Please Leave your Money in a Tidy Pile and Go Home Again'.
They have guided tourist walks down Zeedijk, which used to be a place which had over 30 premises selling heroin years ago, in the days when they were fishing a body a week out of the canals. Now you cannot light a cigarette in the Melkweg, or any other club or bar come to that. The only reason dope is legal is because they would dearly love to ban alcohol. The ghastly fat indonesian tarts in the red light district do business with hopeless indonesian sailors off tankers in the Rotterdam docks, any German city could put on a better display of debauchery if it wanted to, and many do. There even seem to be fewer cats there than there used to be.
"We Dutch tolerate anything except tourists with no money" - The Furry Freak Brothers, Idiots abroad.
You can buy weed in most cities in Holland. Ask a local person. The Amsterdam red light district is a fairly small and ridiculously expensive tourist trap. If you have to go there, take a packed lunch and a bottle of water and get out as quick as possible
Pot isn't actually legal in Amsterdam, it's been decriminalised. Ordinary punters aged 18 or older are permitted to have a few grammes for their own personal use, that's as far as it goes. The only places where the sale of pot is permitted legally are the coffeeshops (not to be mistaken for ordinary cafés), and you won't even be let in the door of these places without ID - they only accept passports of foreign nationals, don't try to change anything in your passport, you will render it invalid, and you don't want to be stuck in another country with an invalid passport - and you must be 18 or older.
Yes, there are sex shops. Yes, prostitution is legal, but there is still trafficking. Not all girls in the trade wanted to be in it.
Pot is not legal in Amsterdam, it is simply tolerated by authorities provided it is bought in a licensed CoffeeShop. Even then there is a limit of 5gms in 24 hours.
Prostitution is legal in Western European countries with the exception of Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Northern Ireland. There is no more sex in Amsterdam than there is anywhere else in Europe.
Pot and prostitution is legal, that is true. I've never been to Amsterdam, but I know a lot of people who went there. You can google Red Light District to have your proof (it's a large area where prostitutes can be found in windows). It's only a lot of sex if you're looking for it and if you're willing to pay for it
its actually a very beautiful city ...built around a series of canals .....most dutch people own about 3 bikes ...the city is full with them ...who needs drugs and scruffy eastern European tarts
If you want, yes. And the streets are flooded too
