From the water
On the left hand side you can see the first coffeeshop in the world, The Bulldog, opened in 1975 by Henk de Vries. And here comes the good question: is smoking, selling and buying weed legal in the Netherlands? The right answer is no. It is tolerated, or decriminalised. So if you are already eighteen years old, you can carry five grams of weed with you, or grow five plants at home. But if every person working in a coffeeshop grows five plants at home, is that enough for the whole coffeeshop? Of course not. So where all the weed comes from is the biggest mystery of the Netherlands.
The story behind it
The Bulldog started in a small basement on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal and grew into one of the best-known brands in the city. The building you see from the water is a former police station — a detail that locals still find amusing.
The Dutch "gedoogbeleid", or tolerance policy, dates from 1976. It separates soft drugs from hard drugs and allows coffeeshops to sell small quantities under strict conditions: no advertising, no sales to minors and no alcohol on the premises.
On your cruise
This is stop 1 of 23 on the Friendship route. Next the boat continues towards The Old Church. Your skipper will point it out as you pass — keep your camera ready, because from the water you see details that are easily missed from the street.
Want to see it in person? All our cruises follow the heart of this route, and with a private cruise you can even ask your skipper to linger a little longer at your favourite spots.
