AMSTERDAM RED LIGHT DISTRICT SECRETS
Sex for Sale Prostitution Museum
Amsterdam is famous for its “Red Light” District, where legal prostitutes hang out in windows on display for passing costumers, enticing with their “wares”. The area has become now as much or more a tourist attraction than sex trade. Beginning in the 16th Century, when the Dutch conquered the seas and the little “low countries” grew into a trade empire, the tacit acceptance of sex for sale was set. Amsterdam, like its counterpart in Hamburg (see Reeperbahn Hamburg Sex Windows) was a thriving port city with horny sailors returning from long solitary voyages and spice traders in transit. The tolerance for prostitution was one of the drivers of the freedoms of the culture which continue today. It was, after all, the pilgrims who sailed from Holland, through the Puritans were more escaping the tolerance of the Dutch. During the Napoleonic Wars at turn of the 19th Century, the city required prostitutes to have mandatory medical checks to control the assorted venereal diseases threaten to run rampant through the ranks of soldiers and sailors.
The legal prostitutes of Amsterdam rent windows in the historic buildings on several blocks of the old city, where they lounge and tease passersby, taking the space on a half-day basis, often working 11 hour shifts six days a week. They can spend a lot of time waiting for a lively customer, while in their free time in the city; they visit local hairdressers and nail salons, or shop, like any other city dweller. On any evening when the late sun sets and lights take over the night, thousands of curious tourists stroll along down narrow lanes, gawking at the women in sexy lingerie (or in cold winter, bundled up in jackets) who lounge behind window panes, selling sex.
In case you have a curiosity about this trade without wanting to actually visit a prostitute, there is a museum on the subject, The “Red Lights Secrets” museum of prostitution offer a look behind the curtain of what the business is actually all about on the other side of the glass. The outside of the museum is very much like the rest of the Red Light area, located in the space of a former brothel, as a prostitute beckons at the entrance, but she’s a hologram visitors pass through to get into the sanctum.
The small museum emphasizes the time since around the turn of the millennium, in 2000 when prostitution went through a shift in legalization throughout Netherlands in an effort to combat human trafficking and eliminate pimps, but which remains a battle. The legal age for a prostitute in Amsterdam was raised from 18 to 21 and whenever a new girl appears in a window, authorities will sweep down and check to see she is old enough and has the proper working papers. Police, social workers and the tax man keep a close eye on the district.
The cost for a prostitute visit in one of the window brothels is a about a standard 50 Euros per 15 minutes. The "peeskamer" or workroom is a pretty standardized 9 feet long by 6 feet wide, in typical “black light” reminiscent of 70’s rock ‘n roll, with a sinks and cabinet of the lubricants and assorted sex toys. The girls typically use no perfume as it might leave a tell-tale trail for wives. And it’s often not the youngest or the most physically beautiful of the girls who make the most, but at best it’s barely a middle class trade and outcall escorts and upscale brothel hookers are competition, but have other associated costs. If you're looking for sex in Amsterdam, there are plenty of options nearby. Just drop off the wife at the museum and let her sit in the fake window seat to experience what's it like to be a working girl, while you slip around the corner for 15 minutes.
Visiting the Red Light Secrets Museum
Admission is € 10 at the door but € 8 if you book online. Open hours are daily from 11 am to Midnight. The museum is located in the heart of the De Wallen, the most famous Red Light District, just around the corner from the oldest building in Amsterdam, the Old Church, dating back to 1213, marking the geographic center of Amsterdam. It’s only a five minute walk from the from the Central Station and the Dam Square. © Bargain Travel Europe
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See Also:
RED LIGHT IN FRANKFURT - BAHNHOFS VIERTEL
SEX & PUBS IN BERLIN - ORANIENBERGER
