Unconfirmed Reports

Amsterdam is a fine, beautiful, tranquil city. There is also the touristy, tacky red light district - which is mildly interesting as a voyeuristic spectacle, but should otherwise be avoided (unless you’re dying to get your hands on a copy of the Teenagers with Dogs DVD). Stay away from the centre, hire a bike and ride along the miles of canal-side laneways, and you will find that this is one of the most delicious urban coagulations that humanity has ever created.

Amsterdam gave me hope for the future. There are more bikes than cars on the roads; people seem happier and more relaxed (and in case you’re wondering, the level of marijuana usage is reported to be much lower than prohibitionist countries such as UK and USA); there is a tangible sense that you should be allowed to live your life as you please, as long as you cause no harm to others.

Amsterdammers have seen a lot: Protestants and Catholics lived here side by side while throughout the rest of Europe they were slaughtering each other; Jews brought prosperity to the city, because they were rejected elsewhere as being undesirable aliens. Similarly, now Amsterdam profits hugely from the tourist dollars of marijuana smokers, magic mushroom eaters, women who like having sex with women and men who like having sex with men - simply because these activities are not frowned on in Amsterdam as they are elsewhere.

You may wonder what the downside is. I didn’t see one - except for the extreme tackiness of the red light district, which nonetheless was a fairly benign, and very profitable tackiness. Or you may wonder if this sheer liberalism has somehow eroded society and let communities disintegrate - but Amsterdammers seemed warm, friendly, sensible, and to value chatting with their friends in a local cafe as much as any other European people.

Amsterdam roads are organised, but complex. There are car lanes (wondrously empty), tram lanes, bike lanes and pedestrian paths. As a cyclist, you have to move between these at various points. There are kerbs that divide each part from the others, but these are low, well-rounded kerbs. Apparently, no-one there ever saw the need for the 20-cm high concrete barriers which we Anglos use to divide one part of the road from another.