The whole reason that this trip happened (three weeks before our already planned European trip) is that I am turning 30. Now 30 has not been setting well with me basically since I turned 29, and my amazing husband decided that he would plan a trip to take my mind off of 30. We literally plugged in our dates into a flight search and did “eeny meeny miney mo” which landed us in Amsterdam. Okay… so there was a little more science behind that…
1. Tickets were fairly realistic
2. We had never been to the Netherlands
3. Yeah… that’s it
So began the planning — we invited my friend Becky and her boyfriend along, and they surprisingly said “Let’s Go!”
Insert: Photo of Group at Train
Today was our full day exploring Amsterdam, and I think we made the most of the time we had. A bit of a late start, but we had a bit of a long day the day before which meant we really needed to sleep. Our first stop was breakfast and since it was “my day”, I chose De Vier Pilaren which is famous for their Pofferjes. Pofferjes are mini pancakes covered in powdered sugar and butter served with whatever toppings you want. The added perk is that the restaurant was right on the canal, so we had a nice view of the water.
Next stop was the Floating Flower Market…. well not exactly, but that was our end goal. Along the way we stopped at random stores in the outdoor mall including a couple of cheese stores. One of them sold only Gouda… They had a smokey Gouda cheese that was just absolutely to die for. For a person who can’t just eat plain cheese, I was going back for seconds and thirds and … dare I admit, fourths??
We finally made it to the flower market and wandered through the booths for an hour or so. If you are local (or at least don’t have to go through customs before returning home), then this market would be a great place to pick up some amazing flower bulbs. Aisles and aisles of tulips were fun to look through along with all the trinkets. This is definitely set up for ‘tourists’, but it was fun to experience, even if it wasn’t exactly what we were expecting it to be.
Our company was now ready for a drink, and we were ready for dessert sitting down to give our feet a break. Like it was meant to be, we walked around the corner and started smelling the most divine scent. Homemade stroopwafels. This was really one of the only things I knew about before coming to Amsterdam, and I’m so glad we found a little mom and pop shop making them. Served with fresh orange juice that tasted like you were biting into an orange, they were better than they smelled. This didn’t solve the drink problem, so we then wandered over to a bar to take a rest.
Insert: Stroopwafel
We didn’t have much time though since we had timed entry into the Anne Frank House at 4:15. This would be the other ‘thing’ I knew about before coming to the city… I knew that we had to tour. The tickets are only available online two months before your tour date, and they sell out really fast. I set a reminder on my calendar and was able to get a slot. I’m so glad, because this was a really impressionable memory for us all. No pictures were allowed, rightfully so. This is the picture of the museum entrance… the Annex was not in view which is why it made for a perfect hiding place…
Insert: Picture of Anne Frank House
Pretty much everyone knows that Anne Frank’s family was forced into hiding during WWII because of their religion. Most also know that the majority of the family did not return from the concentration camps when they were caught. We’ve heard the stories of the concentration camps, and how those of the Jewish faith were forced to follow strict rules. Anne’s story is no different than millions of other men, women and children affected by this horrific event in history except Anne kept a journal through the entire experience. Anne wrote about happy days, but also terrible days. She was so young — she should not have had to view the world in this manner. She even had a “Book of Beautiful Sentences” that she would write quotes from other written works. I just love that so much. I want a Book of Beautiful Sentences too.
The tour of the house was very well organized. You are provided audio guides, and then you walk through each floor of the building. The Annex was very hidden from the road and was three floors hidden behind a bookcase. A simple bookcase protected Anne and her family. It’s so hard to believe that a bookcase is the only thing standing in the way of the gestapo. They were in hiding for two years and during that time, they had to be so very careful not to be seen or heard — a difficult task when you are living above a warehouse. Down to the detail that during work hours, they could not flush the toilet because the water pipes went straight down and someone could hear it.
The most impactful piece of this tour for me is that one of the rooms specifically talks about all the ‘helpers’. You know.. whenever there is an emergency or something tragic occuring, there are always helpers. During 9-11, there were retired firefighters flocking to the twin towers to help in any way possible, not for glory but because they inherently knew they could help. These helpers weren’t helping for glory either, and honestly, if they were discovered, they would go to the concentration camps too. So instead, they were helping because it was inherently the right thing to do. They didn’t agree with the Nazis, and they didn’t agree that anyone of the Jewish faith was bad. So much so that they risked their lives and their livelihood to make sure the Frank family was safe and fed.
This really affected me… I know with my whole being that I will help anyone that I can, but I’ve never been in a situation that it could cost my life. Would I have done what these helpers did for the Frank family? Would I hide a family to protect them? Would I smuggle food and supplies into the house? Would I cover up tracks if one of them was heard? Every ounce of my being tells me I would do everything in my power to be a helper. I could never sit back and just watch the horror occurring and not do something. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
If you haven’t read The Diary of Anne Frank, you should. If you ever come to Amsterdam and have the opportunity to tour the Annex, you should.
I feel like Anne is a bit of a kindred spirt as one of the quotes on the wall is “When I write, I can shake off all my cares. My sorry disappears, my spirits are revived”. Such powerful words for such a small girl.
After we somberly completed this tour, we went our separate ways for a bit to find a bite to eat. Becky and Rob were really looking forward to a fish dinner, and that idea just didn’t work for Kevin and I who are firm believers that “Fish are Friends”. We ended up wandering down to a random canal and picked up some street food to start — pomme frites with gouda sauce. Holy good gouda sauce.
We sat down at a random bench which turned out to be across from the Old Church — we were just in time for the last tour of the evening and so we jumped in line. The tour really just included the bell tower, but that meant once we made it to the top, we would have the most beautiful views of the whole city.
Our tour guide talked through the history of the church which was originally built in the 1300s making this the oldest building in Amsterdam — it was originally built as a Catholic Church, but soon turned Protestant once the Netherlands claimed independence from Spain. Did you know the Netherlands was a Spanish colony? Yeah, either did we. Anyways, we climbed and climbed. One of the floors allowed us to see the mechanism that winds up the bells to play on the quarter of the hour. One of the floors allowed us to actually ring the bells with our hands which was pretty darn cool.
Insert: Bell Ringing Video
We were also able to peak inside the church to see the bright red stained glass (which then prompted the tour guide to remind us we were actually in the Red Light District). Somehow we wandered in without knowing. The views from the top were breathtaking — all the buildings are so cute and from above just looked like a little fairy tale land. The climb back down was interesting since we basically climbed ladders up, but we made it back down.
It was time for actual dinner, and so we decided to sit down and grab some Italian across the street from the church (pizza for me and spaghetti for Kevin). After dinner, Becky and Rob met us there, and we spent a couple of hours just wandering all around the Red Light District. I’m not sure what we all expected it to be, but it was really just a bunch of coffee shops (marijuana shops) and red lights above the doors with woman scantily dressed. We walked through the alleys just to ‘experience’ the red lights, but we all just kind of walked away scratching our head.
By this time it was pretty late, so we were ready to head back to the BnB. Becky and Rob were distracted by a sale on drinks and were coaxed into a shop. Five minutes later Becky came running out of the door asking if we had cash on us. Apparently the bar only accepts cash, and so thankfully we had some. If not… I guess she would have had to do some dishes or something. We were in the red light district after all…
Finally we were on the train to head to bed, all exhausted from the events of the day and ready to head. Tomorrow we head to Belgium!
