History, Windmills and Wooden Shoes

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ANNE FRANK

We walk to Anne Frank’s house, it’s easy enough to spot because even though it’s not even 9am the queue to get in is already over 100 people long. Apart from the line of people, there is really nothing else to make this building any different from all those around it; it’s just an average house, in an average street opposite a canal.

Fortunately I bought tickets on-line before we left Perth so we are able to bypass the line (something I definitely recommend, the only possible disadvantage is that you have to nominate a day and time), we just walk to a separate entry door; ring the bell and we’re in.

The first room we go into is an empty room except for a TV on the wall. This plays a video outlining the story of the house and the situation that made the house famous. I’m in tears before the film clip is even half way through.

As we walk through the rest of the house, apart from pictures and explanations of each room as it was back in the day on the walls, each room is left bare; just as it had been left after Anne Frank and her family had been discovered, this is how her Father wanted it. In one of the first rooms there is a model which shows how all the rooms join together and how they were furnished to give you a better perspective.

There is video playing in some rooms which apply to that room. For example, in the office there is a video of the secretary who worked there and helped the family explaining her role and how it came to be.

Throughout the house there are paragraphs from Anne Frank’s diary printed on the walls, it’s all very quiet and all very somber. I am not the only one who had to bring out the tissues walking through, looking at Anne’s last few years of life.

In her bedroom, there are still the pictures from magazines of movie stars etc on the walls. When her Father, Otto, came back to the house after his release from the camp, he tore off some of the wallpaper with the pictures to remember her by. When the house was able to be saved and opened to the public, this section was replaced back.

In the last room there is the original copy of her diary and also the papers where she had started to rewrite it. The lady helping them found the diary and kept it hoping to return it to Anne later, but sadly this was never meant to be so instead she gave it to her Father.

The museum is really well put together. I overheard some people talking that it should be refurnished to look like it did at the time, but I don’t agree. There are enough photo’s to show you how it looked, and the bareness makes you realise just how much was taken away from their lives, even though they had furniture, they didn’t have freedom. Furnishing the rooms, I think would make it appear they were living a normal life because it’s hard to show there was nothing for them except what was inside these rooms.

Even though there are hundreds waiting to come in, the house is never full and they are very strict with how many are inside at any one time. Again, well done and very moving.

MARKETS

While looking for the post office we stumble across some open air markets. They were really big, it went for about two blocks. Girls must be a magnet for shopping because we literally just stumbled across it - really! There were tables set up on each side with everything to buy piled high and you walk through the centre. You could buy everything from fruit and clothes to curtains. It has that small town feel to it, if you want to buy fruit and vegetables for example, you ask for 5 apples and the girl will select and bag them for you.

ZANS SCHAANS

Now we head to Zans Schaans to see another side to Dutch history, windmills and wooden shoes.

We catch a train there and it is only a 15 minute stroll over the river. As soon as we get near the river, we can see a line of windmills along it, some are intact and working, some are more broken down. But the thing they all have in common (besides being built with wood) is they are huge. Pictures never seem to give a proper indication of size it seems for anything we have seen!

There are quite a few working windmills, there is a paint mill, spice mill and sawmill within very short walking distance. They are all around the $3 each to get in. You can buy a pass (from the train station) that gets you into everything, but a lot are free and unless you want to go into EVERYTHING, you won’t get your money’s worth.

We go to the saw mill. It has been rebuilt to the exact specifications of the original. Before it was pulled down, the owner spent 4-5 years having plans drawn up. There is a video at the entry showing the rebuild, it takes a lot of work to get one of these up. Even though it was built exactly as it had been back in it’s day, not with tek screws, bolts and welding, they did still have the luxury of having cranes and electric saws. We can only imagine how hard it would have been in the 17th century.

An old man joins up with us and explains the building process, and then we see a big logs being sawn up and then another dragged out of the water to be next. While we are there the wind dies to just a whisper and the cutting virtually stops. So imagine back when it was someone’s livelihood that wood is processed and there is no wind - no wind, no work. Considering the men working here were some of the most poorly paid they would have been praying for cyclonic winds every day. Geraldton would have been a good place for windmills!

There is also a cheese factory, wooden show factory, some stores and a few restaurants. We go to the restaurant for lunch, the staff aren’t too friendly (sorry I interrupted your day by coming in) and the food wasn’t the best. But it was alongside a little stream so the location was at least nice.

We went to the wooden shoe shop where they show how the shoes were made by hand and then by machine. They also have some original wooden shoes on show in all sorts of styles, everything from your Wellington boot wooden shoe to your going out pointed toe wooden shoe. There is a group of about 30 Japanese watching as well, they all buy a pair and I can just imagine them all clomping around in them back home!

It doesn’t take long for the guy to knock up a child size shoe, the longest part of the whole process is the drying time. The wood is very soft and wet when they are made and it takes about 3 weeks in the wind to dry. I was going to get one of the sample shoes we saw made but was told by the staff that it wouldn’t survive the trip back home all wrapped up.

So after a really cool day, we walk back to the station for our train back to Amsterdam.

We go back to our hotel and get our luggage and head to the station for our train to Paris. We have a little bit of a wait but with our ticket we are allowed to use the lounge area, so we can sit in comfort and have a drink.

ON OUR WAY TO PARIS

Catch a Thalys train to Paris, nice, comfortable and fast. 300km per hour, 4 hrs, complete with dinner and internet and we go through Brussels to get to France. Would say it was great scenery, but we zipped by so quick!

There is supposed to be a taxi reserved for us as part of our train ticket, but no driver is around so we head to Taxi rank. Bit like Dubai, in that there is no shortage of taxi’s here!

When we get our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, it’s not just lit up, it’s all sparkling! We’re told that every hour from 10pm all the 20,000 twinkle lights come on for just 5 minutes. What a great time to arrive!

On the way to our hotel our driver gives us a bit of a mini tour and shows us to where we can watch the Holland play Uraguay in the World Cup game tomorrow night. The area is right in front of the Eiffel Tower, it’s going to be great!

We arrive at our hotel, the Pullman Paris Tour Eiffel. It’s only one street away from the Eiffel Tower and from our balcony, if we lean out a little (because there are privacy dividers in between each balcony - forget about privacy, I just want the view!), we have a great view of it - awesome!

Lucky we have a good view because there is only 1 channel in English on TV- damn it! And it’s only the BBC News channel so all we hear about is a guy called Moet that there is a huge man hunt for in England.

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