The Low Down On Amsterdam Escorts.

Even in the Red Light district the shows began to lose their appeal. Jan Otten partly blames the council, which is stripping the Red Light district, attempting to turn it into a respectable quarter. Over the past few years, 100 of the 500 prostitution windows have been shut down. He points out that there are more factors, though: “Far fewer people visit peepshows. Amsterdam has gone peepshow numb because of the internet. You can enjoy looking at things on the computer in the privacy of your home, which is quite sad for the erotic business.”
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Is it a shame Amsterdam is losing its peepshows? Jan Otten sees it from a business point of view: “No, not at all. There are still plenty of other attractions in the Red Light district. Sex theatres like Casa Rosso and the Bananabar, I own those too. This peepshow is still doing alright, so I’ll keep it going for now. If it stops making enough money, I can turn it into a lap-dancing bar.”

See the full article from “Radio Netherlands”

Tattoos, Through Time: A New Museum for Amsterdam
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Founded by the Dutch tattoo artist Henk  Schiffmacher, the Amsterdam Tattoo Museum is dedicated to the art, history and preservation of tattoo culture. Occupying 21,000 square feet of two beautifully restored 19th-century buildings, the collection is a wide-ranging one that documents the history of tattooing, from the prehistoric era to the present day. Mr. Schiffmacher’s personal artifacts are the backbone of the collection; he donated tattoo machines, artwork and ephemera like the skin from the arm of a Boston whaler, preserved in formaldahyde, which was not buried in the hopes that its tattoos would help identify him. (They didn’t.) But the museum is no mere curio shop. Items from other donors include prints by the Japanese tattoo master Horiyoshi III and tools from the legendary Samoan tattoo family Suluape. The museum also houses a library, publishing house, cafe, bookstore and a memorial garden.
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Mr. Schiffmacher, 59, first thought of creating a museum after spending more th …

See the full article from “New York Times (blog)”

Here you are said my Dutch friend. Here was De Wallen, the far-famed red light district of Amsterdam. My friend was showing me around the city. Out of a sense of duty she had offered a tour of the coffee shops. I had declined, and now she had brought me here, presumably by a process of elimination. “No, you misunderstand, I want to go to Lambiek, the oldest comic book store in the world! They say that Herge used to shop here,” I protest. My friend is unimpressed. If this was a comic book, there would be a thought balloon above her head with the text reading “Comic book nerd”.

See the full article from “Indian Express”

The end of the peepshow is nigh. For decades peepshows were crowd-pullers in Amsterdam’s Red Light district, but today there’s just one left. What has caused this branch of erotic entertainment to disappear?
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It was remarkably quiet on the Thursday afternoon when RNW visited the “Sex Palace”. Two British tourists and a Japanese family were curiously exploring the premises. Most of the spectator cubicles were empty. In the peepshow area Lady No. 4 was going round in her customary circles, yet most shutters remained closed. Still the last peepshow in Amsterdam is doing quite well, Otten says: “particularly in the weekend, when there are a lot of British tourists”.
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Is it a shame Amsterdam is losing its peepshows? Jan Otten sees it from a business point of view: “No, not at all. There are still plenty of other attractions in the Red Light district. Sex theatres like Casa Rosso and the Bananabar, I own those too. This peepshow is still doing alright, so I’ll keep it going for now. If it stops making enough money, I can turn it into a lap-dancing bar.”

See the full article from “Radio Netherlands”

In Arnhem, fighting between British and Polish paratroops and Germans, often house to house, decimated the city. Today, you can walk through now affluent Oosterbeek, near where the British landed on their way to Arnhem’s bridge, and read plaques about tank battles that occurred in the quiet residential streets where you stand. Sixty years seems eerily not so long ago.
But Arnhem also offered a different surprise – a parade to welcome the arrival of Sinterklaas and his “helper” Zwarte Piet or, alternatively in English, the very Dutch legend of Saint Nicholas (ie, Santa Claus) and Black Pete. In 2011, Holland is known for many things other than World War two battle sites. There are canals, windmills, football,and a liberal attitude to social issues like prostitution and drugs. Then, alas, there is Black Pete.

See the full article from “SBS (blog)”

Songyee Lee, 22, knew she wanted to come to Europe to study. And when she started reading about Amsterdam, she knew that this was the city where she would do it. So Songyee came all the way from Korea for a two-semester exchange programme at the University of Amsterdam.
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Now that she’s seen it, Songyee says the drugs and prostitution don’t make the city “dangerous or immoral or anything.” In fact, she says, because it’s regulated, the prostitution wasn’t as bad as she expected. But she still doesn’t plan to try smoking weed!
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Songyee plans to use her two semesters to study, of course, but also hopes to take advantage of Amsterdam’s central location as a base to see a little more of Europe. 
All in all she says it’s pretty great: Amsterdam is “safer than everyone thinks”, “the school systems are really nice”, she’s got “good teachers and good classes” and she’s “satisfied with everything”. Not a bad recommendation!

See the full article from “Radio Netherlands”

High time: inside Amsterdam’s ‘coffee shops’
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Meanwhile, the City of Amsterdam have labelled the proposal ‘counterproductive’ arguing “If tourists are denied access to coffee shops, illegal sales and drug dealing on the streets of Amsterdam will increase”.
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One thing seems certain: tolerated or not, cannabis will be always be available on the streets of Amsterdam.
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Amsterdam bans ‘no toking’ signs 14 Jul After an only-in-the-Netherlands legal reverse, the city of Amsterdam says it will likely have to stub out the “no toking” signs it introduced in a crackdown on marijuana-smoking youth. Dutch tourist ban for cannabis ‘coffee shops’ to begin this year 30 May The Dutch government on Friday said it would start banning tourists from buying cannabis from “coffee shops” and impose restrictions on Dutch customers by the end of the year.

See the full article from “Brisbane Times”

High time: inside Amsterdam’s ‘coffee shops’
…
Meanwhile, the City of Amsterdam have labelled the proposal ‘counterproductive’ arguing “If tourists are denied access to coffee shops, illegal sales and drug dealing on the streets of Amsterdam will increase”.
…
One thing seems certain: tolerated or not, cannabis will be always be available on the streets of Amsterdam.
Advertisement
More Related Coverage
Amsterdam bans ‘no toking’ signs 14 Jul After an only-in-the-Netherlands legal reverse, the city of Amsterdam says it will likely have to stub out the “no toking” signs it introduced in a crackdown on marijuana-smoking youth. Dutch tourist ban for cannabis ‘coffee shops’ to begin this year 30 May The Dutch government on Friday said it would start banning tourists from buying cannabis from “coffee shops” and impose restrictions on Dutch customers by the end of the year.

See the full article from “Sydney Morning Herald”

A box of cannabis cigarettes is seen in a coffee shop in Amsterdam October 6, 2011. (REUTERS/Toussaint Kluiters)
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Some politicians oppose the proposals. Eberhard van der Laan, the mayor of Amsterdam, says restricting the activities of coffee shops would lead to greater health risks, nuisance and drug dealing on the streets. As mayor, he could simply choose not to enforce the weed pass regulations.
“At the moment the mayor is in conference with the minister to convince him that the measures regarding coffee shops will be counterproductive for Amsterdam,” the mayor’s office said in a statement to Reuters.
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A study by Professor Korf of the University of Amsterdam found that tourists who visited coffee shops in central Amsterdam had similar spending habits to other tourists, and were just as likely to spend 200 euros or more on a hotel room, or splash out at smart restaurants or nightclubs.

See the full article from “24 Hours Vancouver”

A box of cannabis cigarettes is seen in a coffee shop in Amsterdam October 6, 2011. (REUTERS/Toussaint Kluiters)
…
Some politicians oppose the proposals. Eberhard van der Laan, the mayor of Amsterdam, says restricting the activities of coffee shops would lead to greater health risks, nuisance and drug dealing on the streets. As mayor, he could simply choose not to enforce the weed pass regulations.
“At the moment the mayor is in conference with the minister to convince him that the measures regarding coffee shops will be counterproductive for Amsterdam,” the mayor’s office said in a statement to Reuters.
…
A study by Professor Korf of the University of Amsterdam found that tourists who visited coffee shops in central Amsterdam had similar spending habits to other tourists, and were just as likely to spend 200 euros or more on a hotel room, or splash out at smart restaurants or nightclubs.

See the full article from “Toronto Sun”