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Went on a walking tour of Amsterdam. Started in the red light district as that is what Amsterdam is most famous for. The prostitution came from back when sailors used to come to Amsterdam where the big port used to be. Sailors are renowned for sleeping with women and the country didn't like to fact that the sailors were corrupting their women so they decided to set this red light district up to only sacrifice some of their women not all.
So these days women rent out a window to use to entise men in for 'work'. The government agree to this as it ibises by the three most important rules of Amsterdam...
1. It's harmless
2. It's discreet
3. It's good for business
The old church was right next to the red light district as this was where the sailors would go to after they had 'sinned' and because it was becoming so popular, the priest used to take advantage of this fact and make it a way to make money. So the sailors would say 'oh lord I have sinned tonight, I slept with a prostitute' and to which he's reply 'don't worry son you will be forgiven for your sins if you pay me some money' and the sailors would fork up.
Amsterdam is also known for it's coffee houses as you can buy weed in their products. However, interestingly enough the Netherlands has one of the lowest rates of smoking weed to other countries such as New Zealand it's just because it's more tolerable in Amsterdam it's more known.
Walking through the streets and canals of Amsterdam we spotted the wonky houses which is a typical characteristic of a house in Amsterdam. This being due to it being built on a dam.
Saw the smallest house in Netherlands, house's rent here is determined by their width and so houses tend to be built narrower and deeper.
Saw the widest house in Amsterdam which was in the posh part of Amsterdam. The people owning this house were top business men. The people living in this house believed that the only way to make peace was through war.
Went to the old nunnery where the nuns used to live. It's no longer a nunnery. That's about as much information as we got about it...
After that we queued up for a long time to go into Anne frank's house which was where her family were in hiding during the holocaust. Reading all the diary entries and seeing the living conditions of the 8 people in hiding at that time put everything we had seen at the holocaust memorial into perspective. It actually tied everything we'd seen in Prague and Berlin together.
Went to the pancake bakery for some of the best pancakes we've every had. I had one with apples, cinnamon ice cream,cinnamon liquor and whipped cream. It was heavenly.
Went back to the hotel to chill and pack for our last day :(
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