Photo credit: Anna Rodriguez

Never let it be said, as I have said many times, that I don’t travel far and wide for you, in search of earthly delights and naughty happenings. I had the chance to trek ‘across the pond’ just recently and let me tell you, sensual pursuing is alive and well far beyond the shores of the good ol’ U.S. of A.

London

I have been to London plenty before. Pretty much the weather hasn’t changed-cold and rainy-but there is no other way to see this wonderful city really then to walk the streets, in the rain and cold (in fact, the rain and cold adds a unique flavor to any UK adventure, I feel). Up and down through the Underground, taking the twisty streets of Covent Garden, or making one’s way across the various bridges that separate the south end from the north, there is lots to see here. For our purposes though I’ll skip the historic, the London Walks tours (I do recommend this company though for jaunts through the city or even when touring the countryside beyond) and get to the sexy.

Liberation in Covent Garden pretty much holds up its end as one of the premier spots for latex clothing. It is a chock-full two-story shop, with helpful and friendly sales people, presently handing out the just released (and mentioned in a previous SF) London Fetish Map.

The Victoria and Albert Museum is currently running their Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear, sponsored by Agent Provocateur and Revlon. Featured are two floors of glass cases full of unmentionables from the 18^th century to present. Marveling at the handiwork, the designs, the practical (and often times painful) styles women (and some men) wore under their clothes through the ages, this amazing exhibit, which runs until March of next year, is a must-see, as is the rest of this museum. If in town you best catch it, go here for more info.

I also had occasion while in London to enjoy something of a different sensual flavor, something to tease and tickle the ears mostly, and a little of the eyes. Catching the wonderful Twenty Feet From Stardom star, ex-Rolling Stone/Sting/Luther Vandross backing-singer Lisa Fischer and her killer band Grand Baton at the equally wonderful Barbican Centre was a treat I have to thank various press/management/agent people both here and in the U.K. for getting me in to…at the last minute. I caught Lisa and Grand Baton here in NYC a year ago (see the review here) but watching this amazing singer and so humble performer work a larger space like the Barbican (for instance, getting out among the audience to dance with audience members and sing during a smokin’ sly cover of “Fever”) was really something. With the three-piece Grand Baton (JC Maillard, Thierry Arpino and Aidan Carroll) wailing through covers of “Miss You” and most impressively, Led Zeppelin’s “Rock And Roll,” which I feel they handle better then Zep, Lisa was truly free to roam, in very many ways. Her cover of Amy Grant’s “Breath of Heaven” opening set the stage for a warm intimate night and she killed us all wielding her unique baton during tunes like the beautiful vocal trilling masterpiece “Bird in a House,” the wring-your heart-out-to-dry “How Can I Ease the Pain” and her seminal cover of “Gimmie Shelter” to end the show.

It was a wonderful eargasm via these killer musicians who were so appreciative of such a full crowd.

A perfect ender to my near week stay in London town..

Amsterdam

Flying into this city of indulgences, with the sun not setting until 10:30 and that weird ‘white night’ milky-ness to things, the multiple canal tight environs of this place seemed to always be pulsing with people. You-know-what is legal to imbibe in the many coffee shops here (you can easily sneak a toke on the street as well) and yes, prostitution is legal.

The Female&Partners shop is female-owned and features Bridget More latex exclusively, there are live sex theatres like the infamous Casa Rosso, as well as women in windows selling themselves in the Red Light district (which is mainly a few blocks boarding a canal where the lights from those women’s windows splash purple and pink into the water of the canal) and f-bombs on T.V, shows aren’t bleeped. But generally what one comes away with here is a feeling of not so much salaciousness as more a lackadaisical ‘tude of nobody really making all that big a deal about stuff because it is indeed legal (man, we really could learn a thing or two on how to loosen-up).

Overall, it was a trip well spent, site-seeing all kinds of stuff and I returned as much missing home…as wondering why we are so Puritanical.