Here are some general tips about Amsterdam:

•  Before you leave the US, you'll have to get a passport.  When you do get one, make a photocopy of it.  Upon arrival in Amsterdam, put the real passport in the safe in your hotel room, and carry the photocopy around with you.  This will avoid the sticky issue of having your passport lifted by a sneaky pickpocket and your identity stolen, or worse used in some international criminal or terroristic scheme.

•   Pickpockets, you say?  Yeah, they have pickpockets... and drug dealers, and street crime just like any major world city.  That being said, Amsterdam is really very safe.  Keep your wits about you, and you'll be fine. 

•   What about the Red Light district?  Well, I'll cover that issue in a different heading... but, yes... prostitution is legal in the Netherlands.

•   And I've heard that pot is legal, is that true?  Well, technically, it's not true that marijuana products are legal... they're just tolerated in small amounts.  And, yes... I'll cover more on that scene in a different heading.

•   Amsterdam is a relatively small city... you can walk across the main center of town in about a half hour.  That's not to say that it's easy to get around.  Amsterdam's Old World layout laughs at the design of the "normal grid" style of American cities.  And since Amsterdam's streets are governed by a "ring like" canal system, it can get pretty confusing, and therefore lots of fun to explore. 

This picture is a daytime shot of one of the canals in the Red Light District.  More on that later!