This was us at Gay Pride in Amsterdam

Canal Parade - Fred and Charles back in Amsterdam, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

.... a day after coming back from Prishtina, in an area of Europe where gay pride marches have a habit of being disturbed by neo-fascist thugs. We are a lot more fortunate in Amsterdam and it was particularly nice to see on one boat in the Canal Parade the Mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen and on another, three government ministers (all from PvdA), namely Rob Plasterk, Guusje ter Horst and Bert Koenders.

Unlike in London, we did not see many Muslim people either in the Parade or watching from the side of the canals but, then again, there are not usually many Muslims wandering around Amsterdam city centre on a Saturday afternoon.