Exploring Amsterdam . . .

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**Note: Due to a “card error” with my camera’s memory stick, I cannot access my photos from my time in Amsterdam, thus the lack of photos here. I am hoping some computer wizard somewhere will be able to save them for me and I will eventually be able to share and enjoy them. Please send positive thoughts and energy to my camera, as I fear that my wariness with digital photos has caught up to me and I have lost all 200+ photos. But onto the blog . . .

My flight from Toronto to Amsterdam was possibly the most uncomfortable flight I have ever been on. Definitely in the top 3. I simply had no room. Both passengers on either side of me took up their seats plus a portion of mine. Then behind me was a family with two young boys who stayed up (the entire overnight flight) talking - loudly. Anytime there was a lull in their conversation, the plane was silent. So I had the only 3 talkers, right behind me. In addition to that, the child in the seat behind me would kick, pull or push on my seat every few minutes - for the entire 7 hour flight. I was ridiculously tired and when I am ridiculously overtired I get sobby and emotional. It was not a good start.

But now I’m in Amsterdam. I took the train from the airport to Central Amsterdam and managed to get to my hostel, though in a round-about way. Checked in, but was told I couldn’t get into my room until 3pm. Fine. While waiting for my payment to be processed, I was looking at the free maps and brochures at the desk. One’s headline shouted “Free Tour!” What? Really? But it’s true. A company offers free walking tours of the city; the guides work for tips only. The afternoon tour starts at 1:15pm. It was 5 minutes to 1.

So I changed, put my bags in storage, grabbed some fries at a vendor and was off to Dam Square to meet my tour.

What a fantastic tour!

Incredibly thorough. Fun, interesting, informative. Far more info than I could hope to remember, especially on such little sleep! I’d planned to spend time wandering around on my own, but this was so much better. I saw far more and this I was knew what it was I was looking at and I saw details I’d never see on my own.

I don’t know how to begin to list the things we saw and I learned . . . We visited and heard all about Dam Square, the National Monument, the canals & city’s early days, some of the Red Light District, the Old Church, Nieuwe Markt, the Waag, the Jewish Quarter, Amsterdam Historical Museum, the secret square, the city (world’s?) most famous “coffee shop”, old prisons (men’s and women’s), two secret churches, the city’s largest bridge (which has a prison below it), the city’s smallest house, and the house of Anne Frank. And between it all were endless stories, historical tidbits and moderns highlights. Our guide, Cameron, covered everything from the city’s most pick-pockets street, to old signs above doors that pre-dated house numbers, Amsterdam’s own fast-food chain to the University of Amsterdam’s research library. I really mean it when I say the tour was extensive!
Beyond the tour itself were other high and low lights. I met two nice Swedish girls in their final 4 days of 7 weeks backpacking Europe. But it was bloody cold! It was really cold from the start, when the sun was still fairly high, but by mid-afternoon, I could see my breath and at the end when we were losing the sun completely, I was losing feeling in my toes. Definitely ready for some South African sunshine!

The tour’s last stop was the Anne Frank house which worked out quite perfectly in that I’d pre-bought a ticket online. I’m not sure when I first read the Diary of Anne Frank, an early teen maybe. I don’t recall if I bought the book, was given it, if I asked for it or just stumbled on it. But I own the copy I read. I’d say my knowledge of The Netherlands is only average and I didn’t really have a strong draw to any one thing in particular while in Amsterdam. But doing my pre-trip research, I decided that Anne Frank’s house was the one site to commit to seeing.

I’m glad I went, though I spent less time there than I’d originally thought I would. There’s quite a bit to read throughout the museum, but pretty much everything is either quotes from the diary or things explaining her story - which I already knew and had just been re-told by Cameron on the walking tour. So I didn’t really learn anything new or have any “huh” moments of realization.

For me, it was simply about being there, seeing where it happened. Walking behind the bookshelf and through the secret door behind. Standing in Anne’s room where she did most of her writing. Seeing the spot on the wall where her father marked how much the children grew while in hiding. Looking at the pictures of celebrities (including Shirley Temple) that Anne had hung on her walls. Not being able to see outside because the windows are blacked like they were then. Then later, outside, looking at the tree Ane wrote about liking to look at and walking around the church whose bells she liked listening to.

And of course, seeing her original diary. It’s real, she really wrote in it and it all really happened.

A quote near the end really struck me. By a holocaust survivor who’s read the book. He said (paraphrasing) that Anne’s story is so well known, yet it’s only one of millions. But that that’s likely okay because if we all knew each story of every person, we would be unable to live with the sadness.

Then on the way out, there was another quote that was too perfect for me at this time. Nelson Mandella said that many of those at Robben Island read Anne’s story and felt hope. What a fitting segue for my trip!

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