After many years during which the fame of museums with canvases by Rembrandt and Van Gogh have been eclipsed by cafes noted for their sale of light drugs and beautiful 17th century palaces, once home to wealthy merchants, now inhabited by sex industry workers, Amsterdam has decided it was time to review its image.
City authorities are abandoning their liberal stands and are now targeting the two symbols that have won Amsterdam the longstanding title of the world's most tolerant capital: coffee shops in which anyone can buy hashish or marijuana and the seven-centuries old red light district in the oldest city section along the Amstel River canal.
This does not mean that joints and sex are being expelled because this would be very hard to do in Holland - so proud of its liberal values. Amsterdam continues to be a 'tolerant and wild place', but the authorities want to prevent the city centre from becoming a "zone open to crime".
The closing of one-half of Amsterdam's 228 marijuana cafes (there used to be 1,500 of them) was announced two years ago, with the number of brothels' 'sexy windows' will be reduced to 243 and restricted to two streets only. This is all an effort to expel organised crime, involved in these businesses, from the city centre.
Although, technically speaking, marijuana is banned, no one will be held responsible if it is used in quantities of up to five grams at coffee shops. These cafes are easy to spot because most put up the red-yellow-green Ethiopian flags and other symbols of the Rastafari movement. The authorities have already closed down 43 coffee shops in close proximity to schools.
 The other destination to be affected is the famous and always pulsating De Wallen quarter – a favourite place of sailors seeking female company since the 14th century and today an unavoidable target of millions of tourists moving around the city quarter that is filled with brothels, sex shops, gay bars, movie houses and 'hotels'.
Located near the railroad station, the red light district – Rosse Buurt – is the centre of prostitution, which, apart from its street form, was legalised in Holland in 2000. Since that time, prostitutes in Holland have had their own trade union, whom the government recognises and negotiates with, as the girls pay taxes and sometimes go on strike.
Damrak is the main street leading from the railroad station to the city centre and which is today the custodian of a throng cheap restaurants and dazzling neon designed to attract visitors that grow in numbers as the night progresses. Somewhere in this area used to be Rembrandt's studio. Who knows, perhaps the most famous Dutchman used to walk along there with the crowd from the Night Watch.
At one end of the red light district is the dignified Oude Kerk, the oldest city church dating back to the 13th century, which is when Amsterdam first appeared. Outside the church is the Belle Bronze Statue with the inscription: "Have Respect for Sex Workers the World Over". A contrast typical for this city. "No Photo" is written on the windows that reveal sex workers of all sizes and colours.
The fact that 75 percent of all prostitutes are from Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, and most pimps from Morocco, Turkey and Albania, appears quite appropriate for a city of whose population of 740,000 nearly one-half was not born in Holland.
 In around 1650, Amsterdam was the wealthiest city in Europe. Wealthy master artisans of many trades built their houses along the main city canals: Single, Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht. The torpor of guestrooms of wealthy merchants, whose wives and mistresses Flemish masters painted, was replaced in later centuries by licentious vivacity, irritating modern-day puritans with the unrestricted sale of light drugs, prostitutes organised into trade unions, homosexual marriages and legalised euthanasia.
If Holland is the global leader in applying sometimes controversial ideas, then Amsterdam is certainly the world's capital of alternative lifestyles. City authorities are determined to impose restrictions on many things over the next decade.
The ambitious renewal plan is titled Project 1012, so called for the postal code of the city centre known for its narrow streets and passages, medieval houses and 17th century canals. The overhaul is to bring in large department stores such as Galeries Lafayette and Harrods, luxury hotels. However, focus will be directed on the creative power of multiculturalism, something for which Amsterdam is well known.
Far be it that sex, light drugs and rock 'n' roll are the only things the attractive, historical, hedonist, corruptive but also old-fashioned Amsterdam has to offer visitors. First and foremost, Amsterdam is - water. It has 'robbed' from the sea to survive. Canals and bridges, raft-houses - the prices of which do not fall below those on the mainland. People have been learning to make use of the advantages of water for a long time. As early as the 13th century, the Amstel River was dammed to create a fishing settlement known as Amstelredam. Governed by the laws of geography and geology, the Dam Square accommodating the main church - Niuve Kerk - and the Royal Palace have served as the focal point of the city for centuries.
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Water, bridges, paved streets, cafes and galleries, the sound of the bicycle bell... All of this removes Amsterdam - although also subject to 24/7 bustle - from the stress felt in Paris or London. Before your eyes unfolds a cosmopolitan city with many faces: done-up medieval architecture, world-class museums such as Rijksmuseum - housing 5,000 paintings, the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum of modern art or the Anne Frank Museum, galleries and antiques shops, stores, 26 open-air bazaars, including the popular flea market Waterlooplein or the Albert Cuyp day market, florist shops and the 2,700 varieties of Dutch tulips including those floating along the Single canal...
Should you wish to avoid the coffee shops surrounded by the scent of 'grass' that burns your eyes and 'cosmic cookies' with marijuana or hashish filling or the red light district dotted with windows offering scantily dressed prostitutes - then do 'sniff' the charm of the Jordaan quarter.
End the day in original style. Have a drink in one of the Rembrandtplein restaurants, so called for Amsterdam's most celebrated resident. Or have a beer along the canals at one of the 'brown' bars, so called for the brown color of their ceiling due to nicotine. There, pay your respects to Alfred (Freddy) Heineken, another famous Dutchman. | 
