Day 15 Back to Amsterdam, Coming Home Tomorrow! June 30, 2008

5 hours, hotel to hotel, that's what it takes to change cities around here.
I took the train this morning from Brugges to Amsterdam, and it was much less stressful than when I went from Utrecht to Brugges! I only had to change trains once in Antwerp, and I'd been to the very cool 4-level Antwerp station on the way in, so I understood the layout.

My hotel is a real jewel. My room is up 85 steep, narrow stairs (yes, I actually counted them.) It's on the top floor and the toilet is in a little room down the hall; same with the shower. It's super tiny and very plain, but it has a lovely leafy view out the window, and it's only two blocks from the Anne Frank House, right in downtown Amsterdam, and it's cheap and clean. This is the street with my hotel.

15 minutes after I checked in, I was back out and on the way to the Rijksmuseum. Two heavenly hours I spent exploring only the best of the best of their collection, because the rest is closed for renovation and not on view. This is definitely the way to see a museum! Don't waste time on the lesser masterpieces, just go for the gold. In fact, for one of their new acquisitions they spent a cool 12 million euros! The main painters I studied were Vermeer, Jan Steen, and Rembrandt. It was really fun, and Angela can be jealous all day for me!

I knew that the Anne Frank house is open until 9:00, and the lines are gone in the evening, so I did that after the Rijksmuseum closed. The building you see at left is actually her father's business. There was another building hidden behind, which couldn't be seen from the street. So they hid behind the warehouse.

On the way I stopped into a supermarket, looking for both supper and breakfast, and came out with a nectarine, 2 rolls, lots of chocolate (your souvenirs) and something labeled "luchtige" yoghurt. The cognate is "light" so I thought that meant lo-cal. OK. But it really meant "airy," like whipped. So I had airy yoghurt, and it was great!

Some of you may remember when we took you to the Anne Frank House about 1990. Well, they've changed it a lot since then! They bought 2 buildings next to it, to give you a better visitor's center-type introduction to what you will see. They also have blacked out most of the windows, so it will seem more like when the Frank family hid there. I was very involved. In fact, when I realized I'd finished the house and was returning to the visitor's center, I walked backwards against the flow to see it all again before I left. The only entrance to the house was behind the cupboard you see below. The church steeple at the top of this post is what she could see from her attic window.

It is amazing to me how one bright teenager could express so well what she felt and what happened to her. She actually became the voice for millions of others who had no voice. She taught us the horror of the Holocaust, by personalizing it for us.

Otto Frank (her dad) did not read the diary until after he came back from the concentration camp. All his family was gone. Miep (one who had helped them hide) presented the diary to him, but he faound it too painful to read for awhile. When he finally did read, he was amazed. They had had a very good relationship, but he never knew she had such deep thoughts and feelings. He felt like she was an entirely different person than the daughter he knew. He concluded that most parents don't really know their own children. Is that possible? I have thought a lot about that, and I think he's right.

I kind of didn't want to let go of the moment, so I just sat down on a bench with my back to the canal and ate my yoghurt and nectarine and looked up at the old warehouse with the secret annex in back. I guess I don't have any desire to check out the famous Amsterdam nightlife!

The picture just above is the neighborhood, and the picture to the left is the warehouse from across the canal. It's right beside the red awning. The next 2 doors to the right are the visitor's center.