Amsterdam {Day 3}
2:46 AM
We woke up yesterday and made our way to the area around the Anne Frank House where we had reservations at 12:45. We walked around the area and stopped at the cafe called 'Lunchcafe Dialoog' right next door for coffee and bagels. After this we did a little more shopping before going on our tour.
As we were waiting in line we were given a postcard with an image of Anne's journal on the front. June 12th was the 75th anniversary of the day she got her journal for her 13th birthday. So she would have been 88. It was an amazing experience, unfortunately I don't have any pictures because in order to preserve the journal, photos and artifacts, photos aren't allowed. But basically you begin in the front of the house where the office was and walk room by room listening to her story. Eventually you go up a couple flights of stairs and this is where the audio tour stops and you're able to crawl behind the bookcase which covered the door of the annex and into the rooms that the 8 people in hiding lived in. There are photos on the wall that are from when the families lived there and many artifacts around the rooms that are very small. You are then able to climb (literally... it is super steep, almost parallel to the walls) up to see another room and the attic. Once done with this you are able to make your way to see the actual journal that Anne kept and listen to the story about how her dad decided to publish the journal to live out Anne's dream. There are even accounts from friends, people who helped keep the families hidden and even Anne's boyfriend from before she went into hiding and in the last room a guestbook to sign. It was very surreal to think about what happened in that building. I would highly highly suggest going if youre ever in Amsterdam. Especially after seeing everything we saw in Berlin, it made it even more real.
After this, we went to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. We were both craving chicken tenders lol and this is the only place we could find with them so we decided to have a late lunch here.
Then we made our way to the Red Light District. While we had seen it through our canal tour, we wanted to walk down the streets and see what it was like. It was definitely a unique experience to say the least, haha. There were coffee shops (aka weed shops) on literally every corner. People were rolling joints, eating brownies, muffins, & anything you could think of, you could find with weed in it. And if you walked down the alleys, there were red curtains, lights and prostitutes in every window. It was a very interesting area haha.
We got back to our place quite late and had to prepare for an early morning (aka waking up at 2:15!) to head to London.
Amsterdam was definitely amazing with beautiful views!
While our original plans had us staying in the heart of London, literally 1 mile from the London bridge, last Monday on our way to Dublin we decided to cancel and rebook to another location. Not that we were fearful to be staying in London, we just didn't feel like with such a short time since the attack that we would feel comfortable walking through an area where such terrible events took place. So with that, we are now staying in Studham which is around an hour and a half from London and much closer to the aiports we are flying in and out of. The biggest zoo in the U.K. is literally in the backyard of the airbnb we are staying in which is within a little village. It should for sure be a little different than what we are used to on this trip, but we are excited. We are still thinking about making our way into London for the day tomorrow and making a full day, but we will see what we decide. For now, we are just going to lay low and go to the zoo and maybe a winery too!
1 comments
This was my favorite blog so far! What an honor to be at Anne Frank's house on her birthday. I am learning so much through your experiences.
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