Amsterdam, The Netherlands

From Channel to Channel in a Surreal Holland


Oudezids Channel
Friends relax by the Oudezids canal, in the heart of Amsterdam's Red Light District.
Red Light District, Red Neons
The scarlet lights of the Sex Palace, one of the Red Light District's sex establishments.
Banquet Bike
Decoration of a building in the vicinity of the Rijzksmuseum with an illustration of Bartholo's "Amsterdam Civil Guard Banquet in Celebration of the Peace of Munster"
reflection of history
Pleasure boat and tours enters the Oudezids canal and the oldest part of Amsterdam.
I am
Resident passes by one of the city's famous design signatures "
coffee shop corner
Passersby skirt the Baba coffee shop, one of many in Amsterdam.
Shades
Passersby clustered at the base of the National Memorial statue on Dam square.
elegant addresses
View of historic Amsterdam houses from the top of the tower of the Oudeskerk, its church and its oldest building.
On a day tour
Amsterdam visitor poses next to the musketeers at the base of the statue of the painter Rembrandt van Rijn, by Louis Royer who was inspired by one of the painter's most famous works "The Night Watch".
Creative Inclination
Visitors descend the ramp from a sloping garden in the vicinity of the van Gogh Museum.
a deadly deception
Dispersed warning throughout the city warns of the danger of the fake and potentially deadly drug sold by dealers deceived or unscrupulous.
leisure channel II
Friends chat between a channel and a sex shop in the Red Light District.
cultural climbing
Visitors to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam climb the letters of one of the famous signs
Amsterdam Peculiar
Line of facades of historic houses in the vicinity of Amsterdam's Grand Central Station.
Vincent
Children pass in front of an illustrated panel with the face of Vincent van Gogh delimiting works to improve the museum that was dedicated to his life and work.
last preparations
Maid prepares to open the doors of a bar in the oldest part of Amsterdam.
Liberal when it comes to drugs and sex, Amsterdam welcomes a crowd of outsiders. Among canals, bicycles, coffee shops and brothel windows, we search, in vain, for its quieter side.

During one of several chatting breakfasts, Michiel van Os, a former university professor renowned for history, answers us with restrained emotion and some nostalgia: “I retired exactly on the famous September 11, 2001.

During my farewell speech, people seemed a bit agitated but only told me what had happened at the end of the day”.

René, the wife, finished his career as a judge a month later.

Not that it could compare to the terrorist cataclysm that razed the Twin Towers, but by then the building in which they lived was suffering its own structural damage from the sinking of the flooded ground in which Amsterdam had long since settled.

Line of facades of historic houses in the vicinity of Amsterdam's Grand Central Station.

Also more and more affected by the demands of the stairs that they had to overcome in their day-to-day life, the van Os found a more than adequate alternative in the top floor duplex of a building from the beginning of the century. XVII.

They were enchanted by its historic architecture and location next to the Jordaan district, opposite Westerkerk and Anne Frank's house-museum.

The couple shared the privilege of living there, in an elegant home with a lot of antiques and a library, harmonious expressions of two obvious passions, reading and the antique.

Decoration of a building in the vicinity of the Rijzksmuseum with an illustration of Bartholo's “Amsterdam Civil Guard Banquet in Celebration of the Peace of Munster”

We, due to almost family relationships, found ourselves gifted with a few days of kind welcome in their secular home. It's been a long time since we intuited the passing of time like there.

At night, the ticking of old clocks, rope and cuckoo clocks lull us. Simultaneously – or almost – the ringing of the bells of several churches around.

The Pungent Past of Anne Frank and Family

By day we inspected the huge line of visitors to Anne Frank's house who, like a kind of human hourglass, we watched flow across the Keisergracht canal from the large window on the lower floor of the dwelling.

During our stay in Amsterdam, fresh news reported that Annelies Marie Frank – her full name – would have succumbed two months before the date her death went down in history, victim of starvation and typhus, in the German concentration camp in Bergen Belsen.

Today, in a patient and only symbolic sacrifice, hundreds of people wait in the cold and rain to peek into the hiding place that the Frank family has built behind a bookcase in the building where Anne's father worked.

The shelter served its purpose until they were betrayed, captured and joined by the millions of victims of the Holocaust.

Tickets to visit that dismal hideout were sold out for several days.

The Proliferation of Inescapable Coffee Shops

As such, we pass through the door of the building, proceeding to explore the heart of the once working-class neighborhood of the Jordaan: its functional houses and, along the canals, the elegant houseboats in which thousands of Amsterdamers have become accustomed to living.

Leisure Channel

Friends relax by the Oudezids canal, in the heart of Amsterdam's Red Light District.

We walk along the threshold of the city's historic and tourist ring.

Over there, the coffee shops there were a good number of them. They give the streets and alleys an eccentric aroma that only the frequent gaufre houses competed with.

Many residents complained that the first ones were smearing their homes.

Electronic signs throughout the city warned of the danger that the dealers street performers in Amsterdam: “White Heroine Sold as Cocaine. Last November, three tourists died.”

Dispersed warning throughout the city warns of the danger of the fake and potentially deadly drug sold by dealers deceived or unscrupulous.

A Comic-Drama Starring Death

We ended up coming across death, even more unexpectedly.

We rested in Dam Square, in the vicinity of statue-men and other mobile characters, those who make their living by foisting photographs on passersby.

Passersby clustered at the base of the National Memorial statue on Dam square.

Among them stood out three reapers wrapped in black tunics, with skull masks and plastic scythes. Believe it or not, these macabre businesswomen recruited interested parties in large numbers.

One of them, middle-aged, looking like a bully, took his photo but refused to pay for it. Discussion leads to discussion, there were already three Deaths who, allied, were stirred up to the man.

The latter, more than in good health, in excellent shape, backed off but, while responding verbally, also countered with raised fists.

The scene lasted several minutes, until the police appeared and put an end to what we labeled the most morbid and absurd fight we have ever witnessed.

Amsterdam's Frantic Cyclist Transit

Wherever we go, the traffic proves to be as organized as possible.

Still, many of the narrow streets that line the canals are shared by cars, buses, trams, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians, residents and thousands of outsiders who, for the easter week, arrived from all sides.

Going through them or traversing them without incident requires constant concentration and perfect movement management. Even so, things always went well.

Maid prepares to open the doors of a bar in the oldest part of Amsterdam.

René, for example, still complained of pain because some all-terrain vehicle had recently passed over his foot.

We arrived at the historic center of Amsterdam as night fell, a little chilled. Safe from incident.

Amsterdam's Controversial Red Light District

As it's supposed to, we stalk your lewd Red Light District.

Imbued with the pure and hard democracy that Holland is so proud of, the city had been discussing for a long time the permanence of prostitutes in the windows of brothels.

Meanwhile, hordes of tourists, many of them just sexual, assessed her charms.

Others, mere curious people, tried to photograph the exposed women even against their express will.

Friends chat between a channel and a sex shop in the Red Light District.

A notice in a half-walled window with the 800-year-old Protestant church of Oude Kerk – the oldest building and church in Amsterdam – warned, in English: “Sex workers don't want to be photographed. Do not take pictures of windows.”

And the Women's Right to Privacy Complex behind the Showcases

The website pic-amsterdam.com (PIC of the Prostitute Information Center) which, founded by the whore Mariska Majoor, promoted tours through the Red Light District, workshops and other businesses and initiatives, complemented the warning: “disrespect can give rise to problematic situations for yourself and your camera.

Remember that many sex workers lead a double life. Photographs represent a danger as they can be seen by acquaintances or invade your privacy in other ways”.

Red Light District

The scarlet lights of the Sex Palace, one of the Red Light District's sex establishments.

Yet every now and then, instead of the conventional eye-blinks and other bolder customer seduction schemes, we see and hear scarlet or purplish women slamming their hands with all their might on the glass.

Or go outside and intimidate the offenders with angry screams and a collection of curses.

We also heard impressive accounts of persecution carried out by both them and the pimps.

Amsterdam's Civilization Exuberance and the Contribution of the Jews Expelled from Iberia

The following afternoon we ascend to the top of the belfry tower of the Oude Kerk.

From that top, we can see 360º the old houses as far as the eye can see, largely spared during World War II – the port of Rotterdam would be the most battered Dutch city.

View of historic Amsterdam houses from the top of the tower of the Oudeskerk, its church and its oldest building.

As we climb the dark staircase, the guide reminds us that the city and the Netherlands have benefited enormously from having welcomed the Jews expelled from Iberia by the Inquisition and that many of its inhabitants still have Portuguese or Hispanic nicknames.

It still pushes us that Portugal is not part of Spain only thanks to the Netherlands. "How is that?" we ask, intrigued to double the premise's total absence of historical context.

"It's just that if it wasn't for the fight we gave them in the Eighty Years War, you had not been able to get rid of the Filipes.”

“Oh, OK! Well seen, well seen!” we support you without reservation.

Resident passes by one of the city's famous design signatures

Saba, The Netherlands

The Mysterious Dutch Queen of Saba

With a mere 13km2, Saba goes unnoticed even by the most traveled. Little by little, above and below its countless slopes, we unveil this luxuriant Little Antille, tropical border, mountainous and volcanic roof of the shallowest european nation.
Valletta, Malta

An ex-Humble Amazing Capital

At the time of its foundation, the Order of Knights Hospitaller called it "the most humble". Over the centuries, the title ceased to serve him. In 2018, Valletta was the tiniest European Capital of Culture ever and one of the most steeped in history and dazzling in memory.
Helsinki, Finland

The Design that Came from the Cold

With much of the territory above the Arctic Circle, Finns respond to the climate with efficient solutions and an obsession with art, aesthetics and modernism inspired by neighboring Scandinavia.
Oslo, Norway

A Overcapitalized Capital

One of Norway's problems has been deciding how to invest the billions of euros from its record-breaking sovereign wealth fund. But even immoderate resources don't save Oslo from its social inconsistencies.
Juneau, Alaska

The Little Capital of Greater Alaska

From June to August, Juneau disappears behind cruise ships that dock at its dockside. Even so, it is in this small capital that the fate of the 49th American state is decided.
Saint Petersburg, Russia

When the Russian Navy Stations in Saint Petersburg

Russia dedicates the last Sunday of July to its naval forces. On that day, a crowd visits large boats moored on the Neva River as alcohol-drenched sailors seize the city.
Stavanger, Norway

The Motor City of Norway

The abundance of offshore oil and natural gas and the headquarters of the companies in charge of exploiting them have promoted Stavanger from the Norwegian energy capital preserve. Even so, this city didn't conform. With a prolific historical legacy, at the gates of a majestic fjord, cosmopolitan Stavanger has long propelled the Land of the Midnight Sun.
Bergen, Norway

The Great Hanseatic Port of Norway

Already populated in the early 1830th century, Bergen became the capital, monopolized northern Norwegian commerce and, until XNUMX, remained one of the largest cities in Scandinavia. Today, Oslo leads the nation. Bergen continues to stand out for its architectural, urban and historical exuberance.
Serengeti, Great Savannah Migration, Tanzania, wildebeest on river
Safari
Serengeti NP, Tanzania

The Great Migration of the Endless Savanna

In these prairies that the Masai people say syringet (run forever), millions of wildebeests and other herbivores chase the rains. For predators, their arrival and that of the monsoon are the same salvation.
Herd in Manang, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 8th Manang, Nepal

Manang: the Last Acclimatization in Civilization

Six days after leaving Besisahar we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). Located at the foot of the Annapurna III and Gangapurna Mountains, Manang is the civilization that pampers and prepares hikers for the ever-dreaded crossing of Thorong La Gorge (5416 m).
Alaskan Lumberjack Show Competition, Ketchikan, Alaska, USA
Architecture & Design
Ketchikan, Alaska

Here begins Alaska

The reality goes unnoticed in most of the world, but there are two Alaskas. In urban terms, the state is inaugurated in the south of its hidden frying pan handle, a strip of land separated from the contiguous USA along the west coast of Canada. Ketchikan, is the southernmost of Alaskan cities, its Rain Capital and the Salmon Capital of the World.
Adventure
Boat Trips

For Those Becoming Internet Sick

Hop on and let yourself go on unmissable boat trips like the Philippine archipelago of Bacuit and the frozen sea of ​​the Finnish Gulf of Bothnia.
Tiredness in shades of green
Ceremonies and Festivities
Suzdal, Russia

The Suzdal Cucumber Celebrations

With summer and warm weather, the Russian city of Suzdal relaxes from its ancient religious orthodoxy. The old town is also famous for having the best cucumbers in the nation. When July arrives, it turns the newly harvested into a real festival.
Christmas scene, Shillong, Meghalaya, India
Cities
Shillong, India

A Christmas Selfiestan at an India Christian Stronghold

December arrives. With a largely Christian population, the state of Meghalaya synchronizes its Nativity with that of the West and clashes with the overcrowded Hindu and Muslim subcontinent. Shillong, the capital, shines with faith, happiness, jingle bells and bright lighting. To dazzle Indian holidaymakers from other parts and creeds.
Obese resident of Tupola Tapaau, a small island in Western Samoa.
Meal
Tonga, Western Samoa, Polynesia

XXL Pacific

For centuries, the natives of the Polynesian islands subsisted on land and sea. Until the intrusion of colonial powers and the subsequent introduction of fatty pieces of meat, fast food and sugary drinks have spawned a plague of diabetes and obesity. Today, while much of Tonga's national GDP, Western Samoa and neighbors is wasted on these “western poisons”, fishermen barely manage to sell their fish.
Busy intersection of Tokyo, Japan
Culture
Tokyo, Japan

The Endless Night of the Rising Sun Capital

Say that Tokyo do not sleep is an understatement. In one of the largest and most sophisticated cities on the face of the Earth, twilight marks only the renewal of the frenetic daily life. And there are millions of souls that either find no place in the sun, or make more sense in the “dark” and obscure turns that follow.
Swimming, Western Australia, Aussie Style, Sun rising in the eyes
Sport
Busselton, Australia

2000 meters in Aussie Style

In 1853, Busselton was equipped with one of the longest pontoons in the world. World. When the structure collapsed, the residents decided to turn the problem around. Since 1996 they have been doing it every year. Swimming.
Motorcyclist in Sela Gorge, Arunachal Pradesh, India
Traveling
Guwahati a Saddle Pass, India

A Worldly Journey to the Sacred Canyon of Sela

For 25 hours, we traveled the NH13, one of the highest and most dangerous roads in India. We traveled from the Brahmaputra river basin to the disputed Himalayas of the province of Arunachal Pradesh. In this article, we describe the stretch up to 4170 m of altitude of the Sela Pass that pointed us to the Tibetan Buddhist city of Tawang.
Basotho Cowboys, Malealea, Lesotho
Ethnic
Malealea, Lesotho

Life in the African Kingdom of Heaven

Lesotho is the only independent state located entirely above XNUMX meters. It is also one of the countries at the bottom of the world ranking of human development. Its haughty people resist modernity and all the adversities on the magnificent but inhospitable top of the Earth that befell them.
Portfolio, Got2Globe, Best Images, Photography, Images, Cleopatra, Dioscorides, Delos, Greece
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

The Earthly and the Celestial

Blue Hole, Gozo Island, Malta
History
Gozo, Malta

Mediterranean Days of Utter Joy

The island of Gozo is a third the size of Malta but only thirty of the small nation's three hundred thousand inhabitants. In duo with Comino's beach recreation, it houses a more down-to-earth and serene version of the always peculiar Maltese life.
Seeding, Lombok, Sea Bali, Sonda Island, Indonesia
Islands
Lombok, Indonesia

Lombok. The Bali Sea Deserves such a Sonda

Long overshadowed by the neighboring island's fame, Lombok's exotic settings remain unrevealed, under the sacred protection of guardian Gunung Rinjani, Indonesia's second-largest volcano.
coast, fjord, Seydisfjordur, Iceland
Winter White
Seydisfjordur, Iceland

From the Art of Fishing to the Fishing of Art

When shipowners from Reykjavik bought the Seydisfjordur fishing fleet, the village had to adapt. Today, it captures Dieter Roth's art disciples and other bohemian and creative souls.
shadow vs light
Literature
Kyoto, Japan

The Kyoto Temple Reborn from the Ashes

The Golden Pavilion has been spared destruction several times throughout history, including that of US-dropped bombs, but it did not withstand the mental disturbance of Hayashi Yoken. When we admired him, he looked like never before.
Cathedral, Funchal, Madeira
Nature
Funchal, Madeira

Portal to a Nearly Tropical Portugal

Madeira is located less than 1000km north of the Tropic of Cancer. And the luxuriant exuberance that earned it the nickname of the garden island of the Atlantic can be seen in every corner of its steep capital.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
Van at Jossingfjord, Magma Geopark, Norway
Natural Parks
Magma Geopark, Norway

A Somehow Lunar Norway

If we went back to the geological ends of time, we would find southwestern Norway filled with huge mountains and a burning magma that successive glaciers would shape. Scientists have found that the mineral that predominates there is more common on the Moon than on Earth. Several of the scenarios we explore in the region's vast Magma Geopark seem to be taken from our great natural satellite.
In the middle of the Gold Coast
UNESCO World Heritage
Elmina, Ghana

The First Jackpot of the Portuguese Discoveries

In the century. XVI, Mina generated to the Crown more than 310 kg of gold annually. This profit aroused the greed of the The Netherlands and from England, which succeeded one another in the place of the Portuguese and promoted the slave trade to the Americas. The surrounding village is still known as Elmina, but today fish is its most obvious wealth.
Ooty, Tamil Nadu, Bollywood Scenery, Heartthrob's Eye
Characters
Ooty, India

In Bollywood's Nearly Ideal Setting

The conflict with Pakistan and the threat of terrorism made filming in Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh a drama. In Ooty, we see how this former British colonial station took the lead.
New South Wales Australia, Beach walk
Beaches
Batemans Bay to Jervis Bay, Australia

New South Wales, from Bay to Bay

With Sydney behind us, we indulged in the Australian “South Coast”. Along 150km, in the company of pelicans, kangaroos and other peculiar creatures aussie, we let ourselves get lost on a coastline cut between stunning beaches and endless eucalyptus groves.
orthodox procession
Religion
Suzdal, Russia

Centuries of Devotion to a Devoted Monk

Euthymius was a fourteenth-century Russian ascetic who gave himself body and soul to God. His faith inspired Suzdal's religiosity. The city's believers worship him as the saint he has become.
Executives sleep subway seat, sleep, sleep, subway, train, Tokyo, Japan
On Rails
Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo's Hypno-Passengers

Japan is served by millions of executives slaughtered with infernal work rates and sparse vacations. Every minute of respite on the way to work or home serves them for their inemuri, napping in public.
Australia Day, Perth, Australian Flag
Society
Perth, Australia

Australia Day: In Honor of the Foundation, Mourning for Invasion

26/1 is a controversial date in Australia. While British settlers celebrate it with barbecues and lots of beer, Aborigines celebrate the fact that they haven't been completely wiped out.
Daily life
Arduous Professions

the bread the devil kneaded

Work is essential to most lives. But, certain jobs impose a degree of effort, monotony or danger that only a few chosen ones can measure up to.
Fluvial coming and going
Wildlife
Iriomote, Japan

The Small Tropical Japanese Amazon of Iriomote

Impenetrable rainforests and mangroves fill Iriomote under a pressure cooker climate. Here, foreign visitors are as rare as the yamaneko, an elusive endemic lynx.
The Sounds, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Fiordland, New Zealand

The Fjords of the Antipodes

A geological quirk made the Fiordland region the rawest and most imposing in New Zealand. Year after year, many thousands of visitors worship the sub-domain slashed between Te Anau and Milford Sound.