Spring Break Part 2: Amsterdam

Amsterdam was great fun, of course. I did not see any prostitutes, but the reputations of the coffee houses seems to be right on. While I did not visit one of them, I did finally find a yummy place for bagels! When I travel abroad, I generally try to eat the food of that country, but it had been nearly 3 months since I had had a bagel. Especially anyone who is Jewish can understand why I had to give in. 3 months! Anyways….bagels are not the most interesting part of my trip to Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a really fun city, but it also is pretty expensive. The most famous/interesting museums in Amsterdam are the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Rjiksmuseum. Since I can see some Van Gogh in France and because I have to save money somewhere, I only went to the Anne Frank House. I tried to go the first day, during the middle of the afternoon, but the line was about 3 blocks long, so I went back first thing the next morning. I got there about 45 minutes before the museum opened, and at that time, there were only about 5 people in line. It should have been obvious, I guess, but apparently everyone is very interested in this museum. It’s always nice to see people interested in the Holocaust.

The house was fascinating! For some reason, Otto Frank wanted the house left unfurnished when it was turned into a museum, but with photos, descriptions, and film clips, you get a good idea of what it looked like. Speaking of pictures, for some reason, they don’t allow you to take any inside, so unfortunately I don’t have any photos of it. As you make your way up the museum, you first see the offices that hid the annex. The friends of the Frank family who worked for Otto Frank worked there. You then move to the bookcase that hid the annex opening. Very cool! You walk through it, just like they did. You then see all the bedrooms, the bathroom, and the bedroom/kitchen/living/dining room. It made everything I had read in the book so real. The museum wraps up with a relatively small exhibit on Margot, Anne’s sister. Overall, I really liked the museum, but I am always a baby bit disappointed when museums connected to the Holocaust don’t mention the “never again” concept and don’t mention modern genocides. That’s just a small complaint though. Overall it was a great museum, minus the lack of student discounts and not allowing photography.

The other great part of Amsterdam was just walking about town. It totally didn’t matter that I wasn’t rushing from museum to museum all day. It was very nice. Obviously there are canals all over Amsterdam. When I was there, the skies were very gray, so my pictures aren’t great, but I did get some. There was also flowers everywhere, mainly in markets but also planted. In touristy stores, they sell so many tulip bulbs. I don’t think you can import plant products into the US, so I didn’t buy anyone any bulbs, but they were very pretty! Another very cool part of Amsterdam is all the bikes. I really got the impression that most people there commute. There were long lines of bikes riding down the street in the morning. I wish the States could be more like that.