adminYES I was there, but it was during the day and the red lights were not yet lit per se. It was a slightly sunny spring afternoon, a couple of weeks ago that I had the opportunity to tour Amsterdam for the first time in my life.
For those not in the know, Amsterdam is the capital of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, built along the Amstel River and Amsterdam means the “dam” of the Amstel.
This is where the Amstel Brewery, later taken over by Heineken International, was founded in 1870.
I went there by train from Hannover City in Germany where I reside with a couple of friends.
It is not far to the Netherlands border from Hannover, about two hours I think, and then proceeding on to Amsterdam is another two hours by fast train.
But before we toured the red light district, we went to other parts of the city, to places like the Rijks museum where paintings from renowned Dutch artistes like Rembrandt and Van Gogh, to name but a few, are found.
And here in these museums too it was packed tight, with long queues of people waiting patiently for their chance to get inside, almost as if Highlanders and Dynamos playing inside, so I thought to myself.
Before I went to Amsterdam, I did not know that it is a city built along canals. I thought that canals were only in Venice, which I first knew from the James Hadley novel, Mission to Venice.
Maybe I can also consider writing my own Mission to Amsterdam.
But the difference in the Amsterdam canals to those of Venice is that they are not built right up to the houses, but are in the middle of the street so that they are bordered on either side by these streets.
These canals are one of the star tourist attractions in Amsterdam, their banks overlooked here and there by the verandas of bars.
There is another tourism attraction too, which I know draws thousands upon thousands of tourists to the shores of this Kingdom — marijuana. Dutch laws allow the selling of marijuana in coffee shops and the smoking of it in public.
And so you can imagine, almost in every corner, especially in residential areas, one can detect the scent of marijuana in the air. I even saw an elderly lady walking with a girl, maybe her child, smoking a long joint.
And just as we were walking across the bridge of a canal, we were accosted by a couple. They were also tourists, and were lost. They had a street map, but they couldn’t make head or tail of it.
The couple wanted directions. We told them we were also tourists, but we studied their map together with them. The lady was pointing at a street. We asked what was there. She said it was the red light district and she and her husband wanted to tour there.
Yes, the red light district in Amsterdam, just like the museums, canals, and cannabis, is a tourist attraction, and families go there to wander around the alleys, just as one would go to Matopo Hills or Victoria Falls.
At that point, we decided that it was now time for us to also go there. It was slightly after lunch, with lunch hour crowds buzzing all over the streets in competition with the zillions of bicycles that are another landmark of Amsterdam.
After pointing the lost couple in the right direction, we followed behind them.
You know, I had expected something else when we finally got to the red light district. I had expected a place that looks like Rainbow Hotel, you know, smart pavement, and expensively trimmed buildings.
But Alas, it was like walking through Entumbane.
It was just ordinary buildings with old walls in tight alleys. The buildings have these glass doors, and behind the glass doors will be standing a woman in only a bikini and underwear, waiting for clients.
But like the other tourists walking along these alleys, we were not clients, we were just tourists, touring the red light district, and giggling at what we were seeing.
Imagine walking along Barrow Street (Samuel Parirenyatwa) at night to just see the night life there, and walking right on past.
In a short while, we were past the red light district, and headed for a boat cruise along the canals.
And as we cruised along the canals, my mind was far away. In a place called Binga, and of the potential tourism boom that lies there, the magnificent Zambezi on one side, and those forbidden gardens hidden deep in the bush.
Online Reporter