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Hi, I'm Rick Steves, back with more of the best of Europe.
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This time, I'm trying to find my hotel
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somewhere in the back canals of Amsterdam.
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Thanks for joining us.
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Amsterdam is perhaps
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Europe's best-preserved 17th-century city.
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Yet at the same time, it's got a fun, contemporary edge.
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It's a progressive place invigorated by
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a time-honored spirit of live and let live.
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We'll cruise the canals and bike the back lanes.
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We'll sample the Dutch masters from Rembrandt to van Gogh.
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We'll drop into a coffee shop
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that doesn't sell coffee,
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And we'll ponder the red light district.
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We'll remember Anne Frank,
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we'll enjoy a feast of Indonesian food, Dutch style,
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and we'll relax in Amsterdam's Vondelpark.
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The historic core of Amsterdam remains much the same today
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as when it was first laid out back in the 1600s.
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That was Holland's Golden Age,
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when Dutch merchant ships made this the world's richest city.
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Amsterdam's touristy main drag,
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Damrak, was once the main canal.
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Today, it connects the train station
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with the city's main square and the Royal Palace.
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From this spine, the city opens like a fan,
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with hundreds of bridges
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and a series of concentric canals.
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Wealthy merchants built this city
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upon millions of wooden pilings,
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creating a wonderland of canals lined with trees
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and townhouses crowned with fancy gables.
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Traditional bridges -- like this one,
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which crosses the Amstel River -- were built
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with a clever counterbalance.
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They were fine-tuned
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and bridge keepers bragged
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they could raise and lower one
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with a single finger.
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The city's founders built a dam on the Amstel
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back in the 13th century.
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The community that gathered here was named
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for that Amstel dam, eventually, Amsterdam.
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This is where the river hit the sea.
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From here, boats could sail into the interior of Europe
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and out to the rest of the world.
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Dutch merchant ships would sail right up the main canal
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loaded down with material delights --
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silks, spices, and porcelain from faraway lands.
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Amsterdam's port is still huge.
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But it's being transformed from a gritty industrial area
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into a vibrant, modern, and very livable district.
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A striking film museum and art cinema
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is bringing new life to this now-revitalized neighborhood.
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You can hop on a free shuttle ferry
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to see this evolving district,
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or you can cruise a different way,
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by joining the hedonists and tourists
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on Amsterdam's many canals.
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Surprising to me, anyone can hire
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one of these electric boats for a little independent exploring.
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For some help with the navigation,
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I'm joined by my friend
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and fellow tour guide, Rolinka Bloeming.
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Tell me about the difficulty of building here.
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Well, the soil is very swampy,
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so everything you see, Rick,
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all the houses, all the bridges,
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and the walls of the canals are built on wooden pilings.
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It's actually oak wood,
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and it comes from the Black Forest in Germany.
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-We have about 100 canals. -Uh-huh.
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And they were all dug out
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in the 17th century entirely by hand.
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It took them about 30 years.
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The most important one
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was the Gentlemen's Canal, Herengracht.
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And then there is the Emperor's Canal,
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Keizersgracht.
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And then there's the Prince's Canal.
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This has got to be the most beautiful canal in town.
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It's my favorite canal, Rick.
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So what is this neighborhood called?
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It's called Jordaan, this area.
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It's got to be the most characteristic
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part of Amsterdam.
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Oh, today it's one of the most popular places to live.
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Beautiful.
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The characteristic Jordaan district
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offers a quiet slice of Dutch urban life.
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Built in the 1600s
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for warehouses and to house workers,
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it's now home to artists
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and inviting little restaurants and cafes.
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While just a few blocks from the busy center,
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the Jordaan feels like another world.
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Everything's in its place, and life seems very good.
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[Bicycle bell rings]
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Amsterdam has about a million people
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and as many bikes.
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This multistoried bike garage
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is for commuters who ride the train
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and then pedal to work.
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This is one of Europe's most bike friendly cities.
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Bike lanes run next to the sidewalks,
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and bikers whiz by silently.
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Walk carefully.
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[Bicycle bell rings]
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One of the joys of visiting Amsterdam
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is simply being in this swirl of healthy, busy, biking Dutch.
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Bikers everywhere, doing chores,
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flirting, delivering,
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texting, you name it.
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Around here it happens on two wheels.
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The city is decorated with ornate gables.
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The frugal Dutch made their simple buildings look fancy
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by adding ornate facades.
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Amsterdam's famous gables include the point gable
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bell gable, step gable,
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and neck gable.
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17th-century land was expensive
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and taxes were based on the width of the house,
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so the Dutch built skinny and straight up.
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In a merchant's house, the shop was on the ground floor,
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the family lived in the middle,
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and the attic served as a kind of warehouse.
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With their cramped interiors and steep stairs,
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houses came with a pulley
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so goods could be hoisted up and down
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on the outside with a rope.
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That original design still works today.
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Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum
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is one of the artistic highlights of Europe.
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It was built to showcase
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the art of the Dutch Golden Age.
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Here we can gain insight into the industrious people
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who made tiny Holland
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so prosperous and powerful back in the 17th century.
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This art is really all about money.
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The Dutch worked hard, they were brilliant traders,
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and the wealthy had plenty of money to match their egos.
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Now, painters earned their living
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working not for the church or the king,
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but by painting portraits for local big shots.
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The great Dutch painter Rembrandt --
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this is a self-portrait at age 22 --
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earned his money painting portraits.
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These Dutch masters -- actually the drapers' guild --
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all paid equally and expected to be portrayed equally.
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Wearing the standard power suit of the day,
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it's as if someone walks in and grabs their attention,
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natural as a snapshot.
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In Rembrandt's Night Watch, we see another group portrait.
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But rather than the standard stiff pose,
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this one bursts with energy.
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It's the local militia,
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which was also a fraternity of business bigwigs,
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a kind of rotary club of the 17th century.
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They tumble out of their hall, weapons drawn,
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ready to defend their city.
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While creative and groundbreaking
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in its composition, some of those who paid the artist,
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like this guy, were probably none too pleased.
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This self-portrait of Rembrandt at age 55
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shows a man who's seen it all
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and woven those experiences into his art.
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Rembrandt did more than paint for big egos.
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In this painting,
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the prophet Jeremiah laments the destruction of Jerusalem.
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He slumps in defeat, confused and despondent.
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Rembrandt's use of light to highlight certain details
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set him apart from other artists of his age.
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The Rijksmuseum has four rare
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and precious paintings by Johannes Vermeer.
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Here, the master of tranquility and stillness
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shows an intimate street from his hometown of Delft.
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In this quiet painting of an ordinary milkmaid, Vermeer,
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who brings out the beauty of everyday things,
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creates a scene where we can almost hear the trickle
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of the pouring milk.
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Perhaps for the first time, art catered to the tastes
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and budgets of middle-class people, too.
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Smaller canvasses by no-name artists
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that a regular merchant could afford
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and hang in his living room.
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The work of Jan Steen offers a delightful slice
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of 17th century Dutch life.
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No preachy religious or political themes,
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just light entertainment with a dose of folk wisdom.
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Here, children teach a cat to dance,
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mischief on their delighted faces.
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But their father's upset that they're wasting time.
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And in Steen's Merry Family, the parents party
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while their kids copy their irresponsible behavior.
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The girls learn to drink,
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and the little boy picks up smoking.
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The note warns -- "Parents beware,
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your children are learning from your bad behavior."
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This light-handed approach to morality
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lives on in the Netherlands.
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Amsterdam has plenty of examples
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of their progressive approach
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to subjects many people consider unsavory.
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And, with the local passion for tolerance,
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it's occasionally shocking.
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Prepare for some differences --
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curbside urinals,
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prostitutes who are unionized, taxed, and regulated,
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and coffee shops that sell marijuana.
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Throughout the Netherlands,
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places selling marijuana are called "coffee shops."
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For decades now, the Dutch, like many Europeans,
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view marijuana as a soft drug,
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like tobacco and alcohol.
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Marijuana is tolerated,
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but hard drugs are strictly forbidden.
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A lot of people think marijuana is a gateway drug.
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They think if you smoke marijuana,
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you'll be smoking harder drugs.
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Marijuana here is soft drugs, like alcohol and cigarettes,
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and hard drugs are still strictly forbidden.
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What's the age limit for people buying marijuana?
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-18. -18.
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And how much can you buy in one visit?
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Five grams.
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How much is five grams of marijuana?
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This is five grams of marijuana.
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Okay, so that's five grams.
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And if you wanted to buy a smaller quantity,
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what is one gram of marijuana looking like?
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It's about like a bud of this size.
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Okay, so this is one gram.
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And how much would this cost probably?
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-11. -11 euros.
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This particular strain, yeah.
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Now, you have a menu with a lot of variety.
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Yeah, we got all of the different ones.
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Make you happy, giggly.
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We've got the indicas, that's more of a sleepy.
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Mm-hmm.
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Got the organic ones, outdoor,
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and I got a whole bunch of pre-rolled ones.
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Okay, so you can get the loose leafs,
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or you can get pre-rolled joints.
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-Yes. -In the United States,
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we still have so many people in prison because of marijuana.
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Yeah, but here, we believe that it's better to tolerate
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than to put more people in prison.
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Another example of Amsterdam's creative approach
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to social challenges is its red light district.
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Practitioners of the world's oldest profession
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flirt and tease in windows as they have here for centuries.
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When it comes to prostitution,
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the Dutch figure, if it's going to happen anyway,