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Amsterdam Sex Museum (27)

This post is on the Other BDSM web board.

3 Jan 12, 8:00 PM
straitjacket
UK(SA), 6 mths

Been to Amsterdam twice and to be honest the Sex Museum was a bit of a dissapointment after a wander of the red light district.It's a strange place with guided tours being showed the windows where the workers ply their trade and sex shops scattered around the streets.This was about 5 years ago and I think from the other posts Amsterdam may have changed a bit since then.

The Vang Gogh and Rembrandt galleries are very good esp. the Rembrandt but the old city itself is nice to walk around but after seeing it twice I think I've seen everyting and don't need to go back but it's worth a Visit at least once in a lifetime

3 Jan 12, 8:09 PM
MistressStar
UK(TW), 5 yrs

I'm obviously the only one who thinks the move away from the sex and drug notoriety of Amsterdam is a good thing. It has so much more to offer than sex and drugs.

I can get sex and drugs at home, I go for the architecture, the museums, the trams and the canals. And the amazing feeling I get that I have "come home" when I get out onto the streets.

I think the sex industry and the availability of drugs gives the impression that Amsterdam is grotty and seedy, and it is so much better than that.

~ It is always by way of pain one arrives at pleasure ~

Edited 3 Jan 12, 8:14 PM by MistressStar

3 Jan 12, 8:30 PM
Purvection
UK(M), 8 yrs

ReadingSwitch wrote:
The question I would pose would be whether or not aiming towards traditional shopping and culture tourism is such a wise move. I mean there are a heck of a lot of other cities to choose from in Holland and Belgium if that is what you are after... On this trip we also visited Bruges and Den Haag, good examples of these culture and tourism cities.

It seems a shame really, yes sex and drugs are not the most accepted things to be selling to tourists but it is more than possible to experience the rest of the things that Amsterdam has to offer whilst also exploring these areas.

I'd beg to disagree, actually. Amsterdam does have a wealth of cultural gems and I can sort of see why the politicians at City Hall wanted to put more effort into promoting these because most foreign tourists used to forget or just didn't know what was on offer apart from smoking marijuana legally and being able to go to sex clubs. There is so much more than just the Anne Frank House.

The Rijksmuseum is as fine as the Louvre or the British Museum, then there's the Rembrandt museum and house, the Van Gogh museum, the Stedeljk (modern art, as good as the Tate, the secret hidden church Our Lady in the Attic (on the top floor of 3 canal houses, created when Catholicism was banned - it's really special), the Jewish Museum, the shipping museum, the Allard Pierson, the diamond district, the Begijnhof, the zoo, the canals, the shops, concert halls and theatres, parks... shall I go on? Even the stuff I've listed you'd need a week to do a properly, probably longer, and there's lots more on top of that.

But I'm still a little sad that the fetish scene has shrunk so much and that much of what made Amsterdam rock with its counter-culture has also disappeared. When I lived there I just loved that it was so laid-back - I felt very at home there, much more than when I lived in Paris, even though I adore that city too.

Aut disce aut discede. Manet sors tertia caedi

3 Jan 12, 8:37 PM
xAdamx

UK(SE), 9 yrs

Purvection wrote:
As a former resident of 9 years in Amsterdam, I can say it's a city that used to be much more upfront sexually and no longer. The changes started to creep in around 2003-04.

There was a power shift at City Hall then and the incoming politicians decided to clean the city up - they made several public statements about how they deplored Amsterdam's image as a city of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. and wanted to attract a different class of tourist that would come for the culture and shopping rather than the sex clubs and dope cafes.

The dope cafes were the first target - they were given a choice between selling dope or having an alcohol licence and most chose to retain their alcohol licence. The result was about 60% of them closed within six months or moved over to becoming a regular bar.

Then there was a clean-up of the red light district. The knock-on effect was a drastic drop in the number of fetish clubs. Until then, there were loads of clubs - when I arrived in 1995, there were at least 5 fetish club nights a month, excluding the bigger quarterly club nights. Not bad for a city of only a million people. Also, there were almost no fetish clubs elsewhere in NL at the time so all the Dutch would come to Amsterdam for their nights out on the scene.

The changes brought in in meant all fetish clubs now had to apply for a sex club licence (previously they could operate anywhere that had a straightforward public entertainment licence) and these were now in much shorter supply. It pretty much killed the scene overnight. Clubs started up in other cities to compensate but Amsterdam never really recovered and a lot of the shops that sold toys and clothing have since closed too.

I wouldn't say BDSM is taboo is in Amsterdam. Far from it. It's just not as in your face as it was. Outside the Randstad cities in central NL (Den Haag, Utrecht, Rotterdam), it's much more conservative though.

Oh, and I agree the Sex Museum is dull. It's really not worth the entrance fee.

Juantastic wrote:

Docendo_Discimus wrote:
To be honest I found the museum pretty boring. I guess when you have shops and theatres peddling the kind of wares they do openly and unashamedly, there is no real need for it. Don't get me wrong, it is a great city, but I found the Belgian Beer Bar a much more satisfying distraction.

Is it just me, or does Amsterdam sell itself on sexual openness and then, in many ways, fail to deliver? Or is it that the sexual openness doesn't extend to BDSM, which remains a bit of a taboo?

Whichever is the case, we found very little kink related stuff in the shops, with the vast majority selling the same tired selection of vibes, porn DVDs and naughty knickers at stupidly high prices. A few of them had the odd flogger or paddle, but we only found one latex wear shop and two or three adult shops that had a decent selection of BDSM kit.

We'd been warned off the sex museum as tame and boring, so we didn't bother. It doesn't sound like we missed much.

agrees with OP about city goveners cutting back on the windows etc..a reduction of about 25% I was told..though I had no problem finding cafes lol..if you enjoy a puff..along with space cake and yep lsd...no thai sticks though..btw I don't participate any more....

Boom chicago a mag for tourists still exsits and if you google will point you in general places of interest..I found 3/5 places where they sell kink clothing, pvc, rubber, gas masks etc etc..even a shop devoted to condoms..not sure if the red thread..a kind of forum for the postitutes still exsits..it did when I was there..all these can be found mainly round the leidsplain.

As for the sex museum..for 4 euros it's a great place to while away an hour..yes a bit tacky as it tells of the story of sex over the centries...but I love it..as for clubs..showboat still goes...holland and west german make a mockery of gb's anal approach to sexual liberalism in my "umble" opinion.

I love amsterdam, it's got more then sex and drugs..I love the ambience..the history, the architecture..I even found a shop devoted to laural and hardy whose stage names then were dick und dorf, before heading back to the usa to work with chaplin..

Edited 3 Jan 12, 8:44 PM by xAdamx

3 Jan 12, 9:21 PM
Purvection
UK(M), 8 yrs

xAdamx wrote:
agrees with OP about city goveners cutting back on the windows etc..a reduction of about 25% I was told..though I had no problem finding cafes lol..if you enjoy a puff..along with space cake and yep lsd...no thai sticks though..btw I don't participate any more....

The condom shop is still there, on the fringe of the red light district. The Red Thread (Het Rode Draad) is actually the prostitutes' trade union.

�4 for the Sex Museum now? Eek, it was only 4 guilders when I first moved there (was about £1.35, now £7.50-ish).

Aut disce aut discede. Manet sors tertia caedi

3 Jan 12, 9:27 PM
Souci_X
UK(BA), 5 yrs

the Stedeljk (modern art, as good as the Tate,

I was so heartbroken, when I went it was all changing so most of it was closed off, I had just missed Warhol, though my boyfriend at the time did buy me a lovely bag he made which I love.

I personally adored the charm of the city, the lovely little bars and beautiful arcitecture and history mixed with the sex and drugs, it makes it unique and some what wonderful.

I don't know if I am wrong, but I seem to remember two sex museums one at one end of town and one at the other, I went to both and enjoyed both for what they were, the second, nearest to the red light district made me laugh.

4 Jan 12, 3:13 PM
Lady_Laurin
UK, 6 mths

You_May_Kiss_My_Ring wrote:
I just thought - from a BDSM perspective, there'd be more of interest in the Museum of Torture...

Hmm... I'm a sexual sadist, yet can't stand museums of torture. (Maybe my witchy soul is too much reminded of the inquisition.) Strange how the brain works.

When I was in Amsterdam, I was twelve and my father thought it best if I didn't see the sex museum. So I saw van Gogh instead... (And I do believe I got the better deal.)

4 Jan 12, 5:16 PM
Juantastic
UK(CH), 22 mths

Purvection wrote:
As a former resident of 9 years in Amsterdam, I can say it's a city that used to be much more upfront sexually and no longer. The changes started to creep in around 2003-04.

Oh, and I agree the Sex Museum is dull. It's really not worth the entrance fee.

Thanks very much for that insight. It certainly explains why the city didn't live up to our expectations when we explored the Red Light District properly.

Funnily enough, our first visit (about 2008/9) was a family trip and while we were still pretty 'nilla. The emphasis was on culture and museums (and maybe a few pubs) with the red light area skirted through briefly (our little 'un was too young to really understand what it was about anyway) and the drug side avoided entirely. We thought it was a wonderful place to visit, and felt that the sex/drug sides weren't at all intrusive and were likely to be avoided unless you actively went looking for them. I know people who've been to Amsterdam and who've failed to stumble across the Red Light area at all.

Our second trip was as a kinky couple, and that was where disappointment set into to a degree. Yes, there are lots of sex shops, but it was mostly tame, overpriced and very samey. The odd shop did stand out, and there's at least one I'd like to go back to some day.

4 Jan 12, 5:27 PM
Ruby_Skye
3 yrs

We went in October 2011 and found it highly amusing.

Myself and a friend had our photo taken sitting at the base of a huge cock - afterwards discovering that we were not supposed to take pics. Oh dear, never tell a Catholic girl that you are not allowed to do something...

Enjoyed it hugely and found some of the drawings really sexually appealing. As with everything, some good things, some ridiculous things and some rubbish things.

I thought it was great fun!

Ruby

14 Feb 12, 9:54 PM
dwb13x
UK(YO), 3 mths

there was another one that had loads of stuff in the red light district, it had a water feature on the ceiling made of 2 manniquins "urinating" on each other (much lols at the resulting droplets!) also the torture museum by the flower market was pretty damn awesome too! x

"I can see that you're losing me, I always tried to keep myself tied to this world. Though I know where this is leading...please no tears, no sympathy"

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