Amsterdam, Nederland: Day 3

Saturday, 11/13

On Saturday Alex came to Amsterdam!! If you don't remember, she is my roommate at Bucknell and is studying with NYU in Florence. She had "Italian Day" for one of her classes the day before so was only able to fly in on Saturday. I picked her up from the train station (right down the street) and gave her a quick mini tour of Amsterdam while the others waited in the hour long line at the Anne Frank house. We saw the National Monument in the Dam Square, got breakfast at Renee's (I got a strawberry tart filled with custard), went to a souvenir shop where they have a life-size clog shoe, and dropped off her stuff at the hotel.

National Monument

We met the others in line and shortly after entered the Anne Frank house. What exactly is this? It's the place where for more than two years Anne Frank and her family lived while hiding from the Nazi's during the Holocaust. This is where Anne’s father, Otto Frank, had his business, and they, along with the Van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer, hid in the secret annex of the building. The doorway to the annex was concealed behind a moveable bookcase. The office personnel knew of the hiding place and helped the eight people by supplying them with food and news of the outside world, but the factory workers in the building alongside didn't. So, those hiding had to stay silent all throughout the day. On August 4, 1944, the hiding place was betrayed. All those in hiding were deported to various concentration camps. Only Otto Frank survived the war.

Quotations from Anne Frank's diary, historical documents, photographs, film images, and original objects that belonged to those in hiding are displayed. It's a sad place to visit, but as Otto Frank said, "to build up a future, you have to know the past." His intention in making the Secret Annex accessible to the public as a museum was not just so tourists could see the annex, "but also that they are helped to realize that people are also persecuted today because of their race, religion or political convictions.”

The cue outside the Anne Frank house at Prinsengracht 263

Moving on... we were quite hungry after the museum, and The Netherlands is famous for its pancakes. So we went on the hunt for pancake houses and came upon Sara's Pancakes. I got the Dutch waffle with chocolate sauce, bananas, and whipped cream (these can be likened to how I imagine Belgian waffles taste like - small square griddled shape, but thick and dense with lots of sugar). I also got the poffertjes with powdered sugar and butter - a traditional Dutch treat that resembles small, sponge-like pancakes.

 

Poffertjes!

We did quite a bit of walking around Amsterdam afterward and walked past the Red Light District as well. This is a really bizarre place. I don't want to comment on this further, since I'm not using my travel blog as a platform for any political statements, other than saying that it is a very disturbing place, but people are different everywhere and this is a part of their (legal) culture.

After lots of walking around canals, and poking our heads into different stores, it was time to munch on some dinner. We got burgers and fries and then it was back to the hotel to sleep!