We went to check out the Red Lights District the second evening in Amsterdam. (Nope, there won’t be any pictures.) We first passed through the area on Sunday morning and discovered that there were already some women working. It really isn’t a Catholic country, I guess. However, much as the Red Light District may seem strange, it is not nearly as striking as seeing the mini-red light districts in some of the smaller towns. In Amsterdam, you feel that at some level it’s all just for a show, sort of like an outdoor strip club to attract the tourists. Seeing a small three-window red light district in Utrecht on the last day of the trip, was much more shocking. It was the exact same windows, with the same red halogen lamps as in Amsterdam, but this time facing an empty street, which made it seem strangely real, striking in its very banality. Empty street, a small groceries store on one side, three windows with prostitutes on the other, a busy street with restaurants just two blocks away.