This was a good tour that started rather inauspiciously as our small group was blocked twice from entering the Red Light District due to a heavy police presence and an on-site uniformed forensics team collecting physical evidence. It turned out that a working prostitute was stabbed to death by a customer while inside her window space just a matter of minutes before our group arrived.
On a third try geographically farther down we successfully entered Amsterdam's main Red Light District. Different than Hamburg, where women are not allowed inside the city's designated Red Light District, here men and women are permitted to congregate together, and bars and restaurants abound in addition to sex shops, live shows, and working girls standing in windows along narrow alleyways off main streets. The women showing themselves to potential customers were by and large tall and quite attractive. Except for the presence of the human window displays, a passerby might think he or she was just in any other fun area of a major metropolitan city.
Tour guide Kimberly provided interesting facts and historical commentary about the district as Diane, I, and the rest of our group walked several blocks as sightseers. The atmosphere on the streets was convivial, as several loud bar goers could be seen and heard imbibing beer and other alcoholic beverages just inside the front of several taverns dotting a main street. Both tourists and locals were in abundance in the early evening when our 90-minute tour unfolded. It ended with an included drink at a local bar/restaurant just outside the Red Light District. From what we were told, this type of tour inside the district may soon be legislated out of existence by local lawmakers, and strong political interests are seeking to push the prostitutes out of this special zone altogether. The recent murder of a professional prostitute here in plain daylight will likely provide additional fodder for the critics who argue that prostitution is inherently dangerous, and should not be legally protected or allowed in a special authorized geographical zone. So, if such a tour as this is of interest, it should be booked very soon. read more