Canals and Flowers

Anne Frank House was the first on the list for today. Because we didn’t get any advanced tickets, we needed to be there before it opened…..so up by 7, ate breakfast at 7:30, out the door by 8 and outside in a very short line by 8:20.…and they let us in by 8:45 even though it wasn’t supposed to open until 9:00.

This shows the building they were in...the back peaked part was just above the hiding place

The museum is attached to the actual building that the Frank family hid in for 2 years during the war. If you don’t know the story of Anne Frank, she was a Jewish girl who’s father owned a spice business in Amsterdam when he felt the situation for the Jews worsen from the Nazi invasions he secretly had a set of rooms furnished and set up for living in the upper stories of his building. (no pictures allowed to be taken here) Only four people who were his loyal employees knew that they were there. Along with the Frank family there was another family and a single male friend who lived with them in the four prepared rooms. The entrance was hidden by a bookcase. They had to be very quiet during the day so the other employees couldn’t hear them and then at night they had blackout curtains so no lights could be seen. About 10 months before the end of the war they were betrayed and the family was separated and ended up in separate concentration camps…Mrs. Frank died soon after and Anne and her sister died of typhus about a month before the war ended.

Anne kept a diary through the time they were in hiding and had decided that she wanted it published after the war. It was discovered and returned to her father, the only person to survive of the group. He made it his mission to have it published. Now translated in many languages and read by people all over the world.

I read the book many years ago and now I could see the actual small size of the rooms that they lived in. I was surprised at the running water and the flush toilet that was there. The pictures and postcards that Anne put on the walls were still there….none of the furniture was there.

This was the main thing that I had wanted to see while I was in Amsterdam. I’m glad we got there early because when we left a couple of hours later the line up was about 2 hours long.

　
　
Sheryl wanted to go to the flower market on the canal, so we hopped on a tram and then wandered by all the beautiful flower and bulb stalls, wishing we could take back lots of it in our suitcases. We picked up a few souvenirs along the way and then found a nice restaurant for lunch on Rembrandt Square.

A starter kit amongst the beautiful flowers

There just happened to be a couple of caches a short distance away so we headed over towards the city hall area where they were located…one being an earth cache showing the mark that the people of the Netherlands use to show the exact sea level and the rising and falling of the tide. Since this is a diked country below sea level it is important to know.

We then headed back to the hotel to drop off our stuff and have a little rest before we went on a canal cruise in the early evening. The cruise took us up and down the many canal, the audio script pointing out important buildings and architectural features.

One of the things that Paul noticed this morning was that there was hook on the top of the gable of each house or building and using that and a pulley system to hoist things up to the upper floors. The multitude of house boats too are interesting …..some are well kept and up dated, some are neglected but have people living on them, some are big barge like homes, some are smaller more like a boat. There were half sunk boats in the some of the canals and obviously forgotten…

After the cruise we found a spot for dinner.  Sheryl and I continued walking....we went to the nearby Vondel Park.  Being the first really nice summerday they have had in Amsterdam there were hundreds and hundreds of people....picnicing, playing, jogging, riding bikes. 

They all seem to use charcoals for their barbaques

Then went back to the hotel to meet Paul for a glass of wine before we all went to bed.