Netherlands: Day IV (Amsterdam)

Friday, June 24^th:

The Westerkerk (West Church):

            Today was a fun day but slightly sad as Jen left to go home in the afternoon, but I will get there eventually. We woke up for the full hotel breakfast today of an assortment of tea, breads, jams, cheeses, and meat—the morning meal we had become accustomed to over the last few weeks (when we get up in time at least). We slowly made our way over to the last of the big sites in the city we had yet to see, the Anne Frank House. Here we had to wait in a forty-five minute line, in the rain, to see the famous shelter where Anne Frank and her Jewish family hid from the Nazis in the 1940s. It was from this very house that she wrote her famous diaries that have been translated into over 70 languages and have sold over 25 million copies. Anne Frank unfortunately perished due to Typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp only a couple of weeks before the liberation, however her diaries were published by her father, Otto, who had survived Auschwitz. The tiny annex on the back of an office building successfully hid the family for over two years before they were betrayed and raided. It was a very emotional museum, but one of the most important and impressive sites to visit in the city of Amsterdam.

Statue of Anne Frank:

            Right next door to the Anne Frank House is the Westerkerk, the West Church, where Rembrandt is allegedly buried. I say allegedly because scholars do not know where in the church he was buried, just that he is underneath it somewhere. We explored the church and the market outside called Westermarkt before we decided to walk through the city some more over to the huge Albert Cuyp Market. The walk was a bit long, but we again got to enjoy the unique architecture of Amsterdam from the best manner possible—just getting intentionally lost in it. When we got to the Albert Cuyp Market we were famished, but luckily there are food stands literally everywhere. The market is a wide avenue that is covered with food, clothing, metal, souvenir, and bath and body tents. For lunch we decided to stop at one of the fish sandwich tents, where we got an authentic Dutch Broodje Haring, or Herring Sandwich. We both ate these, and it is basically a pickled herring on some bread with onions and pickles. Awesome! We also later tried a Broodje Zalmsalade, which is a salmon salad sandwich. We stopped at couple of bars for lunch beers too, and I particularly remember drinking a nice pair of beers made by Westmalle called the Dobel and Tripel; both were enjoyable. Before we began to walk home, we got to eat a Stroopwafel, the food that I had made us walk all the way there to get. A fresh Stroopwafel is basically two mini waffles in pancake size that are squeezed together with the molasses-tasting stroopsyrup between them. I recommend eating them fresh, because they taste amazing when the syrup is warm and gooey.

Amsterdam Canal Houses:

            Unfortunately it was now time to walk back to the hotel to get Jen ready to leave. It had been an amazing three weeks with her, but she had to catch her overnight train from Amsterdam to Berlin to make her direct flight home to New York City. I will miss her, and we said our goodbyes on her train before I walked back towards the hotel. I got to walk around alone for a little while, stopping at a bar here and there along the way, but went back to the hotel to catch up on some things on my computer and the like. I left later on to get a shoarma (like a kebap) for dinner, and did some more walking around the city at night. I did talk to a nice Nigerian man (who moved to Russia… I don’t get it) at one bar, but turned in around 1am because I have to get up at 6am to make my flight to Edinburgh tomorrow. Tomorrow begins my golf trip with my dad, Dana, my brother, Brad, and my good friend Hogan Guider in Scotland. Hopefully the weather will be better than here, but I will take some warm temperatures and the intermittent rain that we had in Amsterdam! Tot Ziens Amsterdam.

Jen in a Classic Amsterdam Setting: