Written by Belinda
I had booked tickets for the Anne Frank house/museum for Tuesday with separate times for Rod and myself. This way, one of us would be with Hamish and the other would be in the museum. We caught the train from Almere to Amsterdam, a quick 25 minutes. To make the most of the city with Hamish, we chose minimal activities and not too much walking. This started with a canal boat ride which was both pleasant and dry.
It was forecast to rain on and off during the day and much of the rain occurred whilst on the boat; our timing was perfect. This gave us a good overview of the city whilst Hamish listened to his iPod and looked out the windows, with us occasionally pointing out things for him to look at: birds, other boats, houseboats.
We had a quick sandwich at subway and made our way to the Anne Frank house through a maze of side streets and canals with the frequent strong scent of weed. The museum was easy to find due to the Westerkerk cathedral being next door, plus a long line of people waiting to get in. Because we had pre-booked, we had a separate door to enter and thus, walked straight in. We were earlier than our allocated times, but this didn’t matter and we were admitted immediately.
Hamish and I went to the café whilst Rod visited the museum. Maybe this took him half an hour? Hamish had only just polished off our “shared” brownie when Rod returned. Then it was my turn. He didn’t say anything, just ‘off you go’.
The story of Anne Frank is one I have known my entire life. I read this story as a girl and have re-read it over the years. So when I saw the book case which hid the entrance to the annexe, I was overwhelmed with feelings I cannot describe. To be standing there, in my lifetime, some 70 years later – it was surreal. The atmosphere in those few rooms was also something difficult to describe. All of us strangers yes, but I think a feeling of solidarity with those hiding in the annexe, as well as with each other, particularly in light of recent events in Paris. Particularly touching; Anne’s pictures still on the walls of her bedroom, not unlike Jessica’s room, the marks on the walls measuring Anne and Margot’s heights as they aged, just like we do with Hamish. It’s not hard to identify with the Franks. I wrote a quick message in the online guestbook and returned to my boys in the café. Only then did Rod voice his experience; it was the same as mine, very emotional.
We made our way outside and headed back towards the train station, dodging bikes and buses. One thing we did see, which was fabulous, was a bike with a tub-like contraption on the front with space for about 10 children. We saw a few of them. Didn’t get a picture, but I might google it and see what I can find.
Our trip to Amsterdam is our most incident free travel day with a swipe on swipe off Myki-esq travel card. I say incident free, because as Hamish and I swipe out of the station at Almere, Rod’s card is not letting him through “None shall pass!” After a few attempts at getting through the automated gates, he uses the assistance phone (and I use this term loosely) to find out what’s going on. Seems his ticket was not validated at the Amsterdam end, so he can’t exit at Almere. He checks if he has credit, he does, but still no good. In the end, he sneaks out silently tailing another passenger. It’s hilarious; I haven’t seen him move that quickly for a while!
After being thoroughly looked after by Ben and Maria, we are now in Bruges (Belguim), spending the weekend in Dusseldorf (Germany) before heading to Berlin for a week. The past week has been pretty shocking in Europe; so much is going on and to be honest, I am not as relaxed as I was a week ago today. Having said that though, we are as safe as we can be and there’s more chance of us being hit by a speeding bicycle than anything else! I was stopped in the street today by an Oxfam worker trying to get some donation or opinion or something. He started talking to me and I just said, I’m Australian. His reply? “Oh to be Australian, how lucky…”
111daysineurope 