A full day in Amsterdam. Fortunately, the rain had subsided but it was very cool and windy.
We decided to walk anyway to our first activity of the day -- a tour of Anne Frank's House. Boy, has this place changed from when I was here 48 years ago. This first photo is the outside of the original building. But now they have torn down adjoining buildings and built a huge building on the corner, in effect, covering all of the old building behind the facade. You can see from this photo how a new entrance has been created. However, once in, the rooms are the same is they have been for decades.
View across from Anne Frank's House
Statue of Anne Frank in front of Westerkerk Church, below:
The story of Anne is well-known, how 8 Jews hid in the annex behind her father's business from 1942-1944. They were supported by 4 employees who risked their lives to protect them. When discovered in 1944, near the end of the war, all were sent to concentration camps. Anne's father Otto was the only one of the annex's inhabitants to survive. The Germans had destroyed everything in the annex but somehow left Anne's diaries and a box of family photos. Otto made it his life's work to publish them.
First we toured the warehouse and office space in the front, which has been greatly restored. Then we saw the original bookcase and how it hid a smaller than normal door leading to the annex. We went through a small hallway to 2 bedrooms and a bath. Then we climbed some very tiny narrow stairs to the second floor with the living room/kitchen/bedroom and one very tiny bedroom. The 3rd floor or attic is where they stored their food and where Anna often retreated to write.
The new museum space had some nice exhibits related to Anna's family and the war. It also ended with a video of people saying what the exhibit meant to them.
Then we took an Uber to the Van Gogh Museum.
We stopped for lunch at the modern art museum next door.
The VG Museum is an amazing collection of about 200 of the artist's paintings, most of it on loan from Vincent's nephew, (also named Vincent). He inherited them from his father Theo, Van Gogh's brother, who died a year after the artist.
VG is considered one of the most influential artists of the impressionist movement, but he only sold one piece during his lifetime. Most of his important work was completed in the last 10 years of his life, often completing a single painting in a day. He produced more than 2,000 pieces of art in his lifetime.
We were not allowed to take photos but Ed snapped one of me in front of a self-portrait for social media.
I also took this one of his famous "Sunflowers" in the gift shop - a very bad replica from the original. The best part of seeing Van Gogh's originals is observing the textures which give such life to his work. The sunflowers were painted with only 3 tints of yellow- but he knew how to make them work.
A final one is "Orchards in Blossom in Arles."
Then we took an Uber back to the hotel to rest. I took a short walk while Ed rested. Then we walked through "The Red Light District" just to say we did. It was super crowded on the sidewalks and there was very little happening - only saw 2 women trying to lure clients into their den and the rest of the businesses were subdued.
Thought the idea of cannabis ice cream was interesting.
Afterwards we ate dinner in the Sky Lounge at our hotel. The views were the same as in our room which is directly below. We thought we could watch the sunset, but instead it rained. Glad we were already back.
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