NSFW : The Temple of Venus @ Amsterdam

One of the must visit museums in Amsterdam would of course be the infamous Sex Museum - the ultimate museum for everything from genitals to the different art of love making. This museum here is located in the busiest spot of Amsterdam, at the Damrak street, just in front of the Central Station, at the main street and in the real middle of the traffic madness.







Affectionally called, Sex Museum - Venustemple (The Temple of Venus), this place combines the rich collection of artifacts with the elements of exotic to erotic, historic to hysterical and every possible sex variety existed in this very world!



Before you proceed, I have to warn you again... NOT SAFE FOR WORK

(read at your own risk)

Works of Art on display

As you enter the museum, you are greeted with the plaster figure of Venus at the entry and the full size wax figures of Mata Hari with her male partners. Then on the window display on the right, there is an exhibit of the mannequins dressed in the SM (sadomasochism) costumes. There are a few floors to explore in this what seemed to be a tiny shop along the main streets of Amsterdam.

Admiring the photos on display

The Sex Museum with more than 20 years of its existence, has hundreds of interesting pieces of art, unique objects and rare old photographs, bringing them together in an organized and interesting way.

Lot's of Photography and Paintings of Sex

In the Marquis de Sade room there were repetitive sounds of the steam machine, mixed with woman’s screams of joy coming from the speakers on the ceiling. This old fashioned multimedia approach really amused me. It was rather funny to be listening to the "oohs and aahhs" while looking at the display. My colleague and I laughed and "eewwwwed" at the same time.

The sex icon - Marilyn Monroe

We expect to see some air pumped into her skirt and to revive the "ooohh" moment but it didn't happen. I guess the air pumps were not working when we were there. What a disappointment.

Wait... this chair looks like an erect penis...

Two huge plastic phallus (an erect penis or a penis-shaped object such as a dildo) standing erect will give you an interesting photo opportunity because you are allowed to photograph throughout the whole exhibition. This is of course the best part of the deal because you get to capture some pornography as remembrance!



Perhaps the most horrifying wax figure over there is this...

It will appear and try to grab you!

There are actually lots more but I better not post them all here or else parents would start banning my blog for the obscenity and unsafe materials I posted for underaged readers. Overall, this is definitely an old museum with an interesting collection of the objects about the human sexuality such as art, photographs, artifacts and many other items – all composed in a very old-fashioned presentation.

I hope you didn't get caught while reading this at work. What a post to start with on a Monday huh?!! No more Monday blues...

Don't you just love Amsterdam?

Btw, that lollipop is not for kids. You'd know what I mean...

Opening hours:

Every day (also Monday) 10 a.m. to 11.30 p.m.

Admission: € 3-.

How to get there:

Walk from the Central Station direction Dam (2 minutes) or from the Dam square direction to the station (5 minutes).

Address:

Sex Museum – “Venustempel”

Damrak 18

1015 LH Amsterdam

Telephone: +31 020 622 83 76

Website

From Amsterdam Schiphol to Paris Nord

Don't you think Amsterdam is such a beautiful place? I'm not sure about the scenery in Summer but during Winter, I think this picture looks perfect! It's such a picturesque sight as they are many canals running through the city. And how often do you see swans in a city?

We put up a night's stay at Radisson Blu Hotel which is just about 6 minutes walk away from De Wallen, the infamous Red Light district in Amsterdam. There is no train going into this hotel but you can always get a cab to the hotel from the Amsterdam central station which is located 2 km away.

The rooms we had was quite satisfactory. I had a deluxe room with twin beds. The room is clean although not too spacious. The bathroom is in tip-top condition too and an electric kettle is also provided for your complimentary tea and coffee. The rate for this room is around €150++ which is not inclusive of breakfast.

Radisson Blu Hotel

RUSLAND 17,
AMSTERDAM 1012,
NETHERLANDS
Tel: 31-20-623-1231 Fax: 31-20-520-8200
website

The view from my hotel room

When we were busy taking nice pictures of the scenery, this mean boss of mine decided to bombard us with snow balls! And of course in retaliation, I made some snowballs and threw it at him! (and risk my bonus and performance review ratings) haha...

Snow war!

Initially we are supposed to have 2 nights at Amsterdam but due to the heavy snow and traffic jam from Veghel to Amsterdam, we decided to stay one more night at Veghel. And after one night, my colleague and I adjourned to our trip to Paris and my boss flew back to Singapore. We were so afraid that our journey will be cancelled as many trains are not operating and airlines are cancelling most of the flights.

We were praying hard hoping that our schedule is as planned and this includes walking to and fro to check the train schedule and braving the long queues at the information counter just to confirm that my train to Paris is going ahead as planned.

It's very cold at the terminal and we were sitting here since 1 hour ago to make sure we didn't miss our train.

We took Thalys which offers the route from Schiphol to Rotterdam and then to Brussels before stopping at Paris Nord. You have to be at the terminal early as the train only stopped for about 10-15mins for us to get on board.



I took Comfort 1 class on Thalys. The comfort 1 provides food and drinks and also free WiFi on board. It's a little expensive because I remembered I paid €149 for my 1 way ticket to Paris and the bummer is that the website do not take other credit cards outside Europe. I had to ask my european colleague to help me book a ticket.

The food were rather cold. Don't expect them to operate like an airline but the seats are indeed big and comfortable. The worst has arrived! The train broke down in the middle of nowhere and we were stuck in the train for 3 hours before it can operate again. There were just too much travel disruptions during my trip to Europe this time from missing my flight to broken trains. Sigh...

The scenery is indeed beautiful.

It's something we don't get to see back at home so I didn't sleep during the journey.

Despite all the travel mishaps, I am still lucky to be able to go to Paris as planned. It was indeed an experience for me traveling in europe at this time of the year where the weather is unpredictable and the snow that disrupts all the traveling!

Merry Xmas everyone and have a wonderful Xmas eve tonight!