We weren't so lucky this day with the weather... it rained almost non-stop. Good thing we brought two umbrellas!
Once we'd taken the train into Amsterdam, our first stop was the Anne Frank House. We mostly got around by foot, so we crossed many canals and saw endless canal houses. Everywhere you look is water and bicycles. It's such a unique set-up compared to other places we've visited.
The line to get in was about an hour, so I sent Hyrum out to get something delicious. He came back with a chocolate-covered waffle, which was delicious, and nothing like I was expecting. I have overpaying for things I could easily make at home, and luckily this waffle is not like the ones I'd make at home--it was more dense, almost like a dry donut consistency. I wish we'd bought more. Moving on...
The Anne Frank House was interesting to walk through, because it is the unchanged canal house that the Franks stayed in for the two years they were in hiding. [In the photo above, it's the house in the middle, with black doors on the main floor.] Ever since middle school I knew the story about the secret annex, and last year we even watched an Anne Frank documentary, but seeing it is like putting a face to a name: it becomes more real. We climbed up the steep staircase from the first-floor store to the room with the hinged bookcase. Then we climbed through the hole in the wall that was only about half the size of a normal door frame. The Franks' two small rooms were on that floor, behind the bookcase; the van Pels family occupied the kitchen and room upstairs. There was also a small bathroom they all shared. And there was a ladder leading up to a small attic. Small.
It make me think of the time my family moved to Kentucky. There was 7 of us living in a two-bedroom apartment for a few months before we moved into our house. It was a nice apartment, with enough space, but I remember several times feeling like there was nowhere I could go to just be alone. Too many people in too little space. Nowhere to call my own.
The conditions that the Franks lived in wasn't 3rd World or anything, but they had no freedom. They had to close the windows during the day so the light couldn't come through. They could not run water or flush toilets during work hours so the people downstairs wouldn't hear them. They never went outside. It's suffocating.
It's hard to imagine what Otto Frank felt coming back to that small space, alone, after all that they endured together.
Santiago fell asleep while we were waiting in line (miracle!) and slept through the entire museum. He woke up right before we left, and was bright red and lethargic. Great timing, kiddo!
We ate fancy pancakes for lunch. But in reality, they weren't that fancy, and I was thinking that I could have made them for a fraction of their cost.
I'm glad Hyrum is home from deployment for many reasons, and one of them is that he can carry Tiago around all day! And he doesn't complain about the weight like I probably would. Santiago did much better than I expected--he was happy the whole day, I think because he was right in the middle of the action and could see what was going on. With the rain, though, his head would sometimes get wet. (In the picture above you can see a few drops running down his cheek. No complaints from him, though. Just smiles.)
Like I mentioned in this
post, the previous day was Kings Day--a big holiday. There was trash everywhere. While waiting in line at the Anne Frank House, we saw a garbage truck collecting trash from a single restaurant; it took more than 15 minutes! There were also orange decorations all over the city still.
Our next stop was the "I Amsterdam" sign, which is in front of the Rijksmuseum. It was an impressive building, and when I just googled it, I found out a 10-year renovation projected was completed last year, costing 375 million euro! yikes.
Nearby the Rijksmuseum is the Van Gogh Museum. And of course I wanted to go!
We waited in line there for an hour, too. Outside, we saw a big poster for one of my favorite Van Gogh paintings. And I was finally able to see the original. I thought I was going to be able to see it while I was in Paris last year, but it had just been moved. So the stars finally aligned.
While we were in line, Hyrum realized if he wanted to go see the Ajax soccer stadium before it closed, he'd have to go now. We decided to divide and conquer. We planned to meet back at the hotel around 6.
Here's how my "dividing and conquering" went.... [spoiler alert: not well!]. I took the baby and we went through the museum. I bypassed the line of tourists that shuffled slowly around the galleries listening to the audio guide. I just wandered around enjoying the art, and stopping at the paintings that were most interesting. It was great to have a museum filled 100% with an artist I love, and many paintings I was familiar with. So many colors! And for the most part, Tiago behaved, although he was getting very tired.
After, I bought a small print, then decided to take a tram back to the train station to avoid a
long walk. Armed with my baby, my purse, and my souvenir bag, we got on board. I was dying of thirst, and I realized I could get on and off for an hour with the same ticket, so I hopped off in an area that looked like it would have food. I got a big bottle of lemonade, and some turkish food to take back to the hotel for dinner. I walked back to the tram stop, continued on with our journey, and then the conductor announced that we couldn't go all the way to the train station because the crowds were too big. (Ajax had just won the national tournament, and local fans were flooding into the streets.) I gathered up my growing collection of items and wandered around for a while before I finally asked someone which direction to go for the train station.
Once at the train station I had to figure out which train to take. I asked the information desk, then got in line for the ticket machine. I had a bunch of coins in my hand, since the machine we used earlier in the day only took coins. (No bills or credit cards.) The first time at the machine, I couldn't figure out how to find my destination. The second time I couldn't figure out the pricing. The third attempt I finally had the right ticket and price, and the dumb machine wouldn't take my coins. So I put down the soda, the dinner, the purse, the souvenirs, and dug out my credit card. And of course Santiago was screaming hysterically through the whole ordeal. I was so happy to finally board the train and unload my stuff.
I decided traveling with a cute baby almost makes everything better, because even if I'm frustrated or overwhelmed, he's still giggling and wanting to play.
After a 30-minute ride, we rolled into the hotel shortly after 7. As I was walking towards the hotel, I heard Hyrum calling out for us to wait for him. Apparently he'd been on the same train! But his delay was not because of transportation complications, but because he was having so much fun at the stadium.
Like I mentioned earlier, the Ajax soccer team had won the tournament (cutting short my tram ride) so there was a huge celebration going on at the stadium. (The game was away.) There was live music, lots of drunk soccer fans, and a nice stadium. I think it made Hyrum nostalgic of his younger days in Colombia going to soccer games and hanging out with crazy people. I would have hated it, so I'm glad we had separated.
And that concludes my Amsterdam novel!
