The best place to go for information about prostitution in Amsterdam is the Prostitution Information Centre, Enge Kerksteeg 3, in the Red Light District behind the Oude Kerk. (420 73 28; pic@pic-amsterdam.com; www.pic-amsterdam.com. Open Tu-W and F-Sa 11:30am-6:30pm.) Friendly, helpful staff can answer all your inquiries about the world’s oldest profession. You can also pick up copies of several informative publications: The Most Frequently Asked Questions about Amsterdam’s Red Light District, a basic guide to the ins and outs of the window prostitution scene (ƒ2.50/€1,13); Best Places to Go in Amsterdam, a single sheet with the PIC’s top picks for sex clubs, private houses, escort services, and more (ƒ5/€2,27); and the Pleasure Guide, a magazine with ads and articles about commercial sex in the city (ƒ2.50/€1,13). They’ve also got a great array of handmade souvenirs—fridge magnets and such—as well as a mock-up of the inside of a window brothel. The latter provides an ideal place for taking pictures, which you can’t do in actual window-prostitution booths. If you come to poke around, be sure to leave a donation; the PIC is not as yet state-supported and depends on the generosity of visitors to continue its work.
Sex shops and live sex shows are a related element of the commercial sex industry. The former litter the Red Light District, vending pornos (mags and videos), dildos, lubricants, stimulants, lewd souvenirs, and the like. Porn theaters abound here as well, where ƒ12/€5,45 or so gets you an hour of lurid on-screen sex. Sex shops and porn theaters cluster along Reguliersbreestraat, just off Rembrandtplein, as well. Live sex shows are just that: you’ll see some women stripping and pleasuring themselves with sex toys, perhaps a brief lesbian interlude, and then the coup de grâce, in which an actor with a barely-stiff-enough jimmy copulates with a woman for all to see. There are quite a few live sex show establishments in the Red Light District, but the most famous (and by some accounts, “classiest”) is Casa Rosso, right behind the penis fountain, where you can get an eyeful for ƒ50/€22,69.
