when I was stationed in Germany... I love your analogy, EXCEPT who would ever want to go to France?

:-0

The slippery one. I still get a big charge out of "freedom fries" and so on. And speaking of "slippery", that brings closer to the initial premise of this thread. Kidding aside, I went to Paris three times and had an excellent time on every trip. I also had the pleasure of visiting Marseille and touring the wine region. The architecture in France is magnificent and I found the people to be gracious hosts.

Amsterdam has no historical reason to be a good advertisement for social libertarianism. They have historically been progressive by European standards, but can also trace their medieval history through the Roman Catholic church. All this aside, I found Amsterdam to be a "fun" city, especially for young adults. They are permissive in areas where the US is not - namely regarding sex, drugs and rock and roll. Oh, and the Reich's museum and Ann Frank's house and on and on can give someone more than enough to do during the day...