Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
ARROW - 15. Chapter 15
We landed at Schipol and took a taxi to the Holiday Inn in the center of Amsterdam.
We asked the concierge for directions to City Hall. He showed us a map and told us the marriage ceremony would be at 9 am, and it was too late for today, we would go in the morning. Before catching a train to Paris, we’d stop at City Hall and get married.
“We should try and stay up for a while. Otherwise, we would screw up our internal clocks.”
“What are we going to do?”
“We can go to the Rijksmuseum and see two famous paintings, the Milkmaid and the Night Watch. When I stopped here, as you enter the museum, there is a stairway that leads to the second floor. As you walk up the stairs, you come face to face with Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. That was several years ago, and I think they just finished renovating that museum. The other painting in this museum was painted by the Dutch painter, Jan Vermeer van Delft, titled The Milkmaid. There are other paintings, but these two are in my painting style and are very famous.”
“Armand, how about that museum?”
Looking where he was pointing, I started to laugh. “Do you really want to visit a sex museum?”
“Well, it is a museum.”
I knew he was being funny. “You know there is one place we need to visit that will be very interesting. Let’s visit the Anne Frank house after the Rijksmuseum. Then we can go and have something to eat.”
“Then what? It’s still early.”
“We’ll go to the Van Gogh museum, and then we will turn in for the night. Just think tomorrow we will be in Paris as a married couple. “Aah Paree, the City of Lights and Love.” We laughed as we walked to the Anne Frank’s house.
While walking, we had to cross several canals. Colin saw the canal boats. “Let’s take a ride on the canals,” as he pointed to one of the canal tour boats. “We have time to do that.”
It had been several years since I was in Amsterdam. Walking around, I explained what the red lights in the various windows we passed signified.
“Okay, so prostitution is legal in Amsterdam.”
“Yes, it is a good tourist attraction.”
“What does the blue light mean?”
“Where do you see a blue light?”
“There”
I looked where he was pointing. Sure enough, there was a window with someone sitting in the window dressed in woman clothes. While we were watching, a couple of young boys walked by. They opened their pants and shook their penis at the person in the window. The person turned, bent over, and showed them her ass. When she turned around, she shook her penis at the boys. That was when I realized the windows with a blue light advertised gay males. I explained that to Collin. He started to laugh, and I led him away before he would cause a problem for us.
‘Let’s hurry to the Anne Frank house.”
We spent a lot of time there. As we walked through the attic rooms, we relived what had occurred there in our minds. On the way out, there was a book shop and a place to sign the register. Colin signed his name, and I signed with an Arrow. We bought a copy of Anne Frank’s Diary.
“I can’t imagine someone living in those rooms, let alone a family.”
I looked at Colin, and he had tears in his eyes. “Let’s go for that canal ride.”
‘“Didn’t you want to see that Van Gogh museum?”
“We can come back. I’ll use that as an excuse.”
We took a canal ride. Collin was glad the tour guide spoke English.
“Colin, let’s go back to the hotel. We can have dinner, and then I’ll be ready for bed. We have a big day tomorrow.”
- 44
- 30
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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