I finally got bored enough to get myself to another Dutch city yesterday: Amsterdam. It’s only about 30 minutes from Leiden on a comfortably smooth train. I really need to get out more.

I spent a while in the Rijksmuseum. Last time I was in Amsterdam I had been traveling for a long time and going to a lot of museums. It’s funny that people always go to museums when they visit a city despite rarely going to museums at home. I can say though that I’ve been to most of the big museums in Boston, so I guess I’m not really helping my argument much…

Amsterdam really is the city of sin. I’ve never been to Las Vegas, which generally has that title – perhaps because Vegas doesn’t have the redeeming cultural assets of Amsterdam, but make no mistake about Amsterdam, here is my first conversation in the city:

(Scene: In front of the train station around 2pm)
Some Guy: “Do you speak English?
Me: “Well, yes.” (And I’m really good at it too – probably because it’s all I know.)
Some Guy: “Um, Red Light District? Do you know where it is?”
Me: “No. I think it’s that way…”

It seemed kinda early (both in the day and in this person's trip) to be looking for the red light district, but I guess that's what the people want to see.