Amsterdam, Netherlands: Art, History, Exploration

Hello!

After Keukenhof, we went back into town for lunch. At the Lisbon airport, mom's jacket got left with a weird event at security so we replaced it before lunch! We walked over to the Café Het Paleis for lunch. Mom and I split the roast chicken with apple compote and fries, and ended up talking to the couple next to us for a few minutes. We got a recommendation to go over to van Wonderen Stroopwafels for a small dessert. There were lots of different toppings for them and it turned out to be a very popular stop!

We did a little exploring from there, including the Jordaan neighborhood, Dam Square, the New Church, Old Church, and some of the Red Light District. We also did some shopping along the pedestrian Kalverstraat and at the luxury department store de Bijenkorf. At this point, we were really tired (and very turned around) since we'd been out and about all day. We wandered back to the hotel and rested for a while.

The next morning, we got up to buy tickets for the Anne Frank House. (If you want to visit, you either need to buy them two months ahead of time or log on and wait the morning of!) Thankfully, mom was successful in acquiring the tickets for a late afternoon visit to the museum. Once we got up, we went over to the Rijksmuseum for the "All the Rembrandts" exhibit and full collection. The museum itself is huge and has a diverse collection of paintings. Aside from the Rembrandt collection (our favorite), we also liked "The Milkmaid" by Vermeer, a Van Gogh portrait, and the Rijksmuseum Research Library.

On our way out, there was a group of performers playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons. We stopped and listened for a few minutes before heading to breakfast at the Locals Coffee. Because it was so close, we walked by the Heineken Experience. Then, we went to find our meeting point for the canal cruise we booked!

Lovers Canal Cruises does a variety of boat tours, a different way to see and understand Amsterdam through its 165 canals. Although we had a really hard time finding our meeting point (there was some confusion with the people in charge of loading the boats), we were able to get on an earlier tour. Our tour passed by the Skinny Bridge, Anne Frank House, a canal with houses for each province, house boats, the cat museum, a huge hotel in the Nine Streets district (Pulitzer Amsterdam - made up of 25 canal houses combined), and more!

We had extra time, so we walked through part of Vondelpark and shopped before a break in the room.

After a while, we headed back out for the Anne Frank House Museum. I am really grateful we had a chance to visit because I feel that it really brought history to life in the form of a real person who experienced the horrors of the Holocaust. The museum walks its visitors through the Franks' real hiding spots, stories, and bedrooms. The website explains the visit and the history here. Otto Frank, the father, was responsible for the ultimate publishing of Anne's diaries that she kept during her time in hiding. She dreamed of becoming a writer after the Holocaust but unfortunately did not get that opportunity. The visit took about an hour with an audioguide and was absolutely worth it to better understand what happened.

"What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again." - Anne Frank

After our visit, mom and I went to dinner at Brasserie van Baerle based on a recommendation from our hotel. It was fantastic!! We sat outside and loved the ambiance on the patio and the food (entrecote that was served in two portions with french fries). We would absolutely recommend it :)

That was all for Amsterdam! Fun and interesting couple of days for sure.

-A