Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
closed Sun-Mon, facing the Old Church at Enge Kerksteeg 3,
www.pic-amsterdam.com).
• Next door is a
...
Room-Rental Office (Kamerverhuurbedrijf)
Women come here to rent window-space and bedrooms to use for
prostitution. Several of the available rooms are just next door. In
return for their 8-, 12-, or 24-hour rental, they get security—the
man at the desk keeps an eye on them via video surveillance. (See
the monitors inside, and the small cameras and orange alarm lights
above the doors.) The office also sells supplies (condoms by the
case, lubricants, Coca-Cola).
This man does not arrange sex. The women who rent space
from this business are self-employed. Customers negotiate directly
with a woman at her door.
How does it work? A customer browses around. A prostitute
catches his eye. If the prostitute is interested in his business (they
are selective for their own safety), she winks him over. They talk at
the door as she explains her price. Many are very aggressive at get-
ting the man inside, where the temptation game revs up. A price is
agreed and paid in advance.
Are there male prostitutes? Certainly, anything you might
want is available somewhere in the Red Light District, but an
experiment in the 1990s to put male prostitutes in windows didn't
stand up. here are, however, “reconstructed women”—gorgeous
transvestites who may (or may not) warn customers, to ward off
any rude surprises.
• Continue circling clockwise around the church. Amid prostitutes in
windows and just past the “sex-cinema,” the orange brick building on
the left is the...
Princess Juliana Daycare
Life goes on, and locals need someplace to send their kids. This
school was built in the 1970s, when the idea was to mix all dimen-
sions of society together, absorbing the seedy into the decent.
The location of this daycare center (for kids from newborn to 4
years old) would be a tough sell where I come from. (If you're
having trouble finding this discreet building—which is sealed up
tight—look for the black-and-white photo of the princess near a
gunmetal-gray door.)
• Turn left at the canal and continue north on Oudezijds Voorburgwal
to the end of the canal. Along the way, you'll pass...
Pill Bridge and Little Venice
The first bridge you pass is nicknamed “Pill Bridge”
for the
retail items sold by the seedy guys who hang out here. Beyond
