Other Dutch things...

I will try to stop my prejudiced ways and stop stereotyping segments of the dutch population...and i will try to move on from further comments related to Monday's massacre.

I will be gone for the weekend, so this is my last posting for the week. I'm going to Antwerp, Belgium with M's mom and 2 sisters. Its actually only about 1.5 hours away by train, so its not terribly far away. While its still in dutch-speaking land (Flanders)...perhaps the atmosphere will be different there, since it is a different country? We shall see, I've never been there before except for a few different times in the train station (a very nice station, I must say).

I just want to go back in time 2 days....and write a little tidbit on another amusing piece of Dutch culture. The main canal in Utrecht is called the Oude Gracht (old canal). It is very nice and has a wharf at the level of the canal where you can sit and enjoy life at water level...and look up to the life of the city above you. Anyways, this canal runs north-south. I live on the north side of Utrecht. The canal is here too, but there is no longer a wharf or anything like that, its just a canal. Nearby here, is a red light district...and funny enough, it is along the canal here in Overvecht (my neighborhood). I heard about it before, but have never seen it, so on Tuesday, I decided I wanted to ride near there to check it out...and to see what the land is like even further north of here, since I've never explored this area before. So, less than a mile from my apt is the red light district...and funny enough, they are all houseboats! For a stretch of about a mile along this canal are houseboats, and each houseboat has 4 apartments, or rooms basically. and at 5pm in the afternoon, there were girls there, working. And there were also a lot of customers. I'm sure at night its even more shady. But there's a road and people just drive slowly by looking at the girls and seeing who they want to visit. The bike path is next to the road. Its interesting to see the type of people (men) who are walking/driving/biking here looking for someone. Of course there are the young teens, the scuzzy guys, the laborers...but I also saw some decently /normally dressed men...that look like business men. I'd take a picture but I'd probably get in trouble. and plus I don't need some big scary dude coming after me. I also noticed several cars parked there with German license plates. Interesting that they come to this corner of the world in Utrecht. I just think its rather funny...how "dutch" (oh wait, i said I'd stop with the stereotypes)...to have a red light district on houseboats! I didn't look too much, i kept on riding by...to visit some windmills and a castle a bit north of there (speaking of other 'typically dutch' things).