Sloshing Through Amsterdam
Knowing well in advance that there was going to be extremely heavy and unrelenting rainfall in the city today, we planned a (more or less) indoor, museum-type of day. With this in mind, our first stop was…
The Anne Frank House
Many years ago I read “The Diary of Anne Frank”, as so many have, and could not help feeling extremely moved and inspired by the book. I vowed that if I ever got to Amsterdam, a visit to the Anne Frank House would be at, or near, the top of my list.
Although it’s a very touristy thing to do (I’ve read it’s Amsterdam’s #1 tourist attraction), it’s a must-see. The demand to get in to the House is so overwhelming that you must now have a pre-booked, timed entry. The perpetual line snakes around the block at any given time of the day even though you have a pre-booked ticket.
Our timed entry was for 9:45AM. I was, in a way, kind of dreading the visit only because of the disrespectful way large groups of people can act when they enter a place that commands respect. What a shock – although there were literally a stream of a few hundred people filing through, there was total, absolute silence from everyone – no ringing cell phones, no text arrival messages, no loud or raised voices, no laughter, no selfies – just silence and solemnity. It was a very sobering experience.
Photography is strictly forbidden in the Anne Frank House, so there’s no photos to post except for this one outside of the House:
After spending about an hour and a half at the Anne Frank House, we took a break…
…Then on to The Rijksmuseum
Again, we had a pre-booked, timed entry ticket for this high-volume attraction. While the rain continued to pour outside, we enjoyed some amazing architecture and art inside the Rijksmuseum.
Back To The Hotel, Please…
You know it’s a very wet day when we’re forced to take the tram system back to the hotel instead of walking. This is what the interior of the Amsterdam trams look like. Not terribly different from our TTC streetcars:
One last shot of the day:
How moving. One of your best posts. What was it like inside the Anne Frank House? That’s the house before they moved to the attic I assume.
It’s very eerie and somber. The building is actually the factory & warehouse where the Franks’ manufactured their pectin product called Opeckta. They hid for two + years on the “secret annex” on the top two floors of this building.
I was in Amsterdam about the same time as you. You can see in my last two posts. 😉