Exploring cultural and tacky Amsterdam It has never been high on my list of priorities to go to Amsterdam, famous as it is for it's sex and drugs. That just hasn't appealed. So I wasn't expecting much from this city. I was proven pleasantly wrong about it all. For starters, Amsterdam is a very pretty city. If you ignore the aroma of marijuana in the air, you can almost forget that certain drugs are legal here. It is situated on canals and reminded me in some ways of the beauty of Venice. On our way in, our tour guide informed us about the difference between cafes and "coffee shops". Let's just say that you can buy different types of cakes in the coffee shops. And then we were told a little about the red light district. As well as it's sex and drug industry, Venice has amazing cultural aspects and I decided to up my intake of culture for the day. My first stop was at the Vincent Van Gogh museum, an artist who I have always enjoyed. It still amazes me that I am able to see the origional works of art that I once studied and analysed in high school and seeing some of Van Gogh's works was amazing. The museum itself was wonderful and contained items belonging to Van Gogh as well as letters he'd written to his brother. I then decided to head over to the Reijks Museum, a large museum containing many Dutch artists. This was also fantastic and within this museum there was a wonderful section about dutch history that contained not only artworks, but replicas and origional models, fabrics etc of the time. It was very well done and gave me a really good understanding of the events that took place over history. Deciding to continue my cultural day, I walked up through the Leidesplein (a shopping, eating and "coffee shop" area) to the Anne Frank Huis. While I haven't read the Anne Frank diary, I was aware of the story and decided to add to my history lesson. The Anne Frank Huis is set inside the office building/house where the 2 families hid and this lent an almost eerie feeling to it. This would have to be the very best example of a museum that I have seen (and I've been to a few now!) as it contained extracts, video footage, conversations with people involved (including her father) and items kept in the house. A definite must see in Amsterdam I have decided. That night, we headed out for dinner aboard a docked boat and then headed into the red light district to see a live sex show. I'd heard a little about the red light district but it really does have to be seen to be believed. Girls in glass windows, waiting for their next fee, curtains closed when they were occupied. The majority of the group attended the sex show which really just made me feel cheap and tacky. I'm still not sure what I was expecting but it was really quite boring. For starters, there weren't really any interesting new positions shown. And one of the men certainly had problems performing! These acts were going on in front of you but it felt as though you were removed from them. Not shocking at all like I thought it would be. I would have to say that having seen puppetry of the penis, go see that instead. Although, seeing a sex show is probably a must do in Amsterdam, seeing as it is famous for it. All in all, I did enjoy my time in Amsterdam, although it wouldn't be a place I would rush back to. I feel as though I saw all I wanted to see there.