Tour of Amsterdam

I will summarize my tour of Amsterdam in four parts this time (four?! Yes four). Just so you know, I summarize these mostly so I can eventually go back and revisit them, but I put them online in case any of you want to know what I’m learning! :P

The four parts we’re going to dive into are Fun Facts (and any miscellaneous information I couldn’t figure out where it should go), History and of course, you can’t talk about Amsterdam without mentioning Prostitution and Marijuana.

Unofficially, the Dutch have a philosophy that will pop up in many aspects of their culture: a “Tolerance Policy”. They will “look through their fingers” only seeing the benefits of certain things if they fit into three criteria.

1. It is kept relatively quiet
2. It does not cause any harm
3. It must generate money and boost the economy

I mention this first to give you insight into the business mindset of many Dutch people.

Let’s start with some FUN FACTS!

• The #1 crime in the Netherlands is tax evasion
• Amsterdam is known for its canals built around the city (“Venice of Northern Europe”), but unlike in Venice, these canals are filtered every three days to prevent that dirty water smell in the hot summers
• Each year, approximately 20,000 bikes are pulled out of the canals. College students like to teach people to lock their bikes up properly the hard way.
• If the winter is cold enough, the canals will freeze over. The Dutch love ice skating, and it is not uncommon to see people skating to work or the store. When this happens, they will have a race to identify a King or Queen of the Canals
• The British call cookies “biscuits”, so where did the work cookie come from? The Dutch word cookja (“cook-ya”), showing their influence on the United States (which I will talk about later)
• The Dutch are also good engineers. They built in the corners of buildings in alleys “pee deflectors” to discourage drunken people from peeing there. These deflectors will cause the urine to splash back onto the perpetrators pants. At one point, they were electrically charged, but someone turned up the power too high and… you can guess from there.

• Amsterdam is a city built mostly below sea level. Its highest ground elevation (not buildings) is 1.3 meters above sea level. The Airport is 3.5 meters below sea level.
• Because of its low altitude, rats can be a problem. Therefore, many people have cats to deal with this problem, including many of the coffee shops (places where you can smoke pot). It is not uncommon to see stoned cats in these shops.
• Taxes on buildings were determined based on their width. Thus, you have many thin houses; the smallest of which is 1.6 meters (just over 5 feet) wide.

• Because many buildings are thin, their staircases are also thin and steep. You can’t really get furniture or large objects up the stairs, so they attach a hook from the beam at the top of the house to use as a pulley system. People will use these pulleys to lift sofas, fridges, and just about anything else you can imagine.

• There are many leaning buildings in Amsterdam. Some lean on purpose and others are mistakes:
• Buildings that lean to the side are a result of faulty foundations

• Buildings that lean forward are an incredibly intelligent showcase of engineering. They must lift heavy things into their houses using pulleys, but Amsterdam is quite windy. Oftentimes, people would accidently break their windows or damage the house itself performing these tasks until they starting leaning the building slightly forward! Crazy right?!

• Amsterdam was the first city to have a monument to represent homosexuals and their gay pride parade actually takes place in the canals

• Clogs (the wooden shoes) were originally used by factory workers to protect their feets (they might be the first version of the steel toe boot).
• The Dutch and their sports teams often wear orange, even though their flag is red, white, and blue. This is because the royal family is the House of Oranje-Nassau, dating back to Willem van Oranje (William of Orange). Thus, the color originates from the name of their royal lineage but is today a sign of pride in their country and heritage.

BRIEF HISTORY:

Dam Square, an actual dam blocking part of the Amstel River, is the central location of Amsterdam built in the 13^th century. In 1645, the royal palace was built here as Amsterdam was developing into one of the most important European cities (their “Golden Age”)

During the 16^th century, Catholicism was banned in Amsterdam after Protestants took power. Many Catholics remained in the city despite this ban because citizens would “look through their fingers” at those practicing the Catholic faith. One famous Catholic Church, Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic), as you may be able to guess, continued to hold service throughout this 200 year ban on Catholicism in secret. The Church in the attic was able to hold nearly 200 people.

 What is now the University of Amsterdam is considered the birthplace of modern capitalism. This is where the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company (in Dutch, Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or “VOC”) originated. You may be familiar with this for many reasons, the most important of those reasons being that this is how Captain Jack Sparrow is identified as a pirate by Commodore Norrington in the beginning of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie (no I’m not embarrassed that I didn’t have to look up any of that information).

The VOC had four major enemies: storms on the seas, disease, enemies of the Netherlands, and of course, pirates. However, they responded very well to these problems. They had a fleet of 20 ships sailing back and forth from the Netherlands to the new world. Instead of loading each ship entirely with one good, as was the custom at that time, they would load 5% of each product on every ship. That way, if they lost one ship, they would only lose 5% of each of their products and still have 95%. The first stock exchange building in the Netherlands (maybe in the world; up for debate) was built in Amsterdam, and people received 400% returns on the East India Trading Company stocks.

In 1626, the Netherlands purchased an island for the modern equivalent of $27 and named it “New Amsterdam”.  Later, this island was traded for the Island of Run, a small island that was mostly jungle. This trade was a bad one for the Dutch and was referred to as getting an apple for an egg. They traded away Manhattan, a.k.a. “The Big Apple”. The nickname is believed to have arisen from the Dutch metaphor condemning the trade. However, the melting pot that Amsterdam was at the time due to its successful commerce and economy resulted in a similar array of people in New Amsterdam—thought to be a leading cause of the diversity of New York City.

Fast forward to World War I, and we have the business-minded Dutch wanting to stay out of the costly effort that is war. However, they took advantage of the opportunity to make a profit selling weapons to both sides. In World War II, people in Amsterdam would “look through their fingers” at Jews, which led to Amsterdam receiving the nickname of “Jerusalem of the West”, a safe haven. Unfortunately, Hitler conquered Amsterdam, but the city was left mostly alone.

Here we have two interesting stories. The first is about a group of Jews who formed underground boxing clubs. They heard about plans of a Dutch Nazi attack nearby, jumped them, and beat their leader into a coma. He would die three days later causing a strong response from the Dutch Nazis. They planned yet another attack the following day, a Sunday. Sunday was market day, and the workers went on strike to stand up to the Nazi occupation. Although the Nazis responded with heavy artillery, quickly disbanding the strike, this is a moral victory for Amsterdam. This is the only time in WWII that a non-Jewish population of a city stood up to defend the Jewish population of their city.

Of course, we have a second story, one of the most famous tales of WWII: Anne Frank. Born in Frankfurt am Main, her family moved to Amsterdam to escape Nazi Germany. Her father, Otto, began a very successful jelly business there. In his business, he constructed a secret annex where his family and four others hid from the Dutch Nazis during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. With the help of his trusted business partners, they hid for over 2 years.

In hiding, she wrote in her diary to escape and share things she could not share with the people in hiding with her. The house is filled with powerful quotes from her diaries indicating how she longed to laugh or even cry but could not for fear of someone outside hearing her. She also read many books while in hiding. Her father encouraged her to keep a book of her favorite quotes from the books she would read. Anne aspired to be a successful writer after the war, so when the exiled Dutch government announced over the radio a request to save diaries and journals from Jews hiding during the war, Anne saw her opportunity. She rewrote almost her entire diary before she and her family were found as a result of an anonymous tip (to this day, nobody knows who betrayed their family).

When they were captured, her diaries were left in her father’s briefcase under his bed. Helper to the Franks, Miep Geis, found the diaries and hid them, even though this act was punishable by death, hoping to return them to Anne after the war. Unfortunately, Anne, her sister, and her mother, died before the end of the war. Anne died just one month before the Nazis surrendered. Miep gave the diaries to her father upon his return and, determined to fulfill her goal of being a published writer, had the diary published. Her diary and stories are now published in 37 different languages.

The Dutch Police helped the Nazis in uncovering many Jews hiding in the Netherlands. The Jewish population went from 140,000 to 5,000 after the war. Because of the government’s harsh betrayal of the citizens of the Netherlands, many new, liberal laws arose after World War II. Included in these laws are the well-known, liberal drug and sex laws.

Prostitution:

 Very famous in Amsterdam is the Red Light District, known for its availability for sacrilegious activities. Yet somehow, we have a church (The Old Church built in 1307) smack dab in the center of this area. Now what in the world is a church doing there?! There are two reasons. First, the sailors coming into town that didn’t know their way around the city could head to the Red Light District, do their dirty deeds, and stumble straight over to the church to ask for forgiveness. The priests would give “indulgences” vindicating sailors for a fee.

However, many sailors would have to leave very early and would not have enough time to stop by the church before they had to ship out. It’s a very dangerous thing to be sailing the rough seas with such bad deeds hanging over your head, so the church began selling “pre-indulgences” where sailors could confess for sins they intended to commit the following night. The church was shut down shortly after they posted a price list next to the confession box for different sins.

The church also had a second, lesser-known purpose. To this day, time slots with prostitutes last 15 minutes and are often timed using musical playlists. Before stereos and playlists, the time slots would be according to the church’s bells, ringing every 15 minutes.

In the year 2000, prostitution was legalized in Amsterdam in an effort to cut down on the sex trafficking and forced prostitution occurring there. Nowadays, prostitutes can rent the windows they dance in for 75-150 Euros per day (approximately $100-200). Quite an upfront cost, but when you work in 15 minute shifts and charge (typically) 50-70 Euros (just under $100) per customer, you end up making a fair amount of money.

Beware! If you are traveling to the Red Light District in Amsterdam, you will see these ladies dancing in windows along the streets. Do not take their pictures! The windows open, and one of two things will happen. One: they will chase you down, break your camera, and probably hurt you as well. Two: they rent windows and have a strict time schedule and usually do not have access to a bathroom. They pee in cups and will use this to make you pay if you take their picture. You don’t want to walk around smelling like prostitute urine, I promise.

Despite its well-known nightlife reputation, the Red Light District is actually a very friendly and family-oriented area during the daytime. We walked through seeing parents with their kids and enjoying the nice day.

Marijuana:

 Marijuana is another thing that is allowed in Amsterdam by the Dutch “looking through their fingers”. It is relatively quiet, people who smoke pot aren’t generally causing trouble, and it is great for their economy. Profits are estimated at nearly 283 million Euros, probably more due to lenient tax laws around sale of weed. In the 70s, heroine was a big problem in Amsterdam so efforts were strengthened against heroine and were more casual when it came to marijuana. However, you do have to be 18 years old to smoke it.

The name of “Coffee Shops” arose in an effort to not directly come out and say they were selling marijuana, allowing officials to “look through their fingers”. They cannot directly advertise the sale of pot nor have menus, but many places do. Some menus include what kind of marijuana you are getting, how it will be ingested or inhaled, and a vivid description of the high you will feel as a result.

Despite the fact that it is allowed, the Dutch government has been quoted as saying that they have succeeded in making marijuana a boring drug. People in the Netherlands still smoke it. Kids will try it before they are legally allowed, but it becomes less appealing as they get into college. Studies have proven that weed inhibits short term memory, which is imperative for college students. Overall, the Dutch are below average in marijuana use per capita.