Day 23 Amsterdam

Day 23

So after waking up early and showering not that there was much of a point due to the intense heat we hopped in the bus and headed to Amsterdam. We arrived at the hotel later in the evening unpacked a bit and met with the rest of our group outside.

We then hopped the tram from our hotel into the city which was a 30min ride or so and got to the Anne Frank house. Anne Frank originally lived in Germany and fled to the Netherlands with her family in the 1930s after times became rough for the Jewish community. Several years later her family went into hiding with another family of 3 and a man in the annex above her fathers workshop. In 1944 there secret was given up and they were all moved to different concentration camps. Anne died in the camp but her memories and life experiences were survived through the diary that her father had printed several years later as a reminder to what happended and a way to ban people together to prevent another tragedy from occuring. While waiting outside the annex to get in we stood in what can only be described as the worst down pour any of us had ever experienced. Our umbrellas had no chance and we were soaked. What a nice little welcome to Amsterdam.

The annex was really interesting. There was no furniture beccause after their discovery the Germans confiscated everything and Mr. Frank requested to leave it that way. There was bits and pieces of her diary painted on the walls along with video interviews from her father and other members that helped the families surrive while in hiding.

After we headed to the Dam, or church, in the city center and grabbed a bite to eat of subway and some hot chocolate to help warm us up. The hot chocolate was amazing it was from Australian Homemade and they use chocolate ice cream and put it in a frother. It was delicious. We met up with the rest of the group and headed to a canal tour of the city and enjoyed to see the city from a boat view.

After the boat tour we did a short walking tour around the city with the group and our guide. We got a bit lost in the Red Light District which is always an interesting experience and then hopped a tram and headed back to the hotel.