Amsterdam!

9.21.12

Alright everyone, I'm able to write about my trip to Amsterdam now! :)
Sometime while I'm in Spain I'll update you about Portugal as well.
I'll have a few more days at sea after we are out of Europe and headed
for Ghana.

Amsterdam-gorgeous city! The first thing I noticed as Zach, me,
Colleen, and Amy got off the train was how many bikes were there. They
had parking garages specifically for nothing but bikes! I would totally
lose my bike if we had anything like that! I definitely took some
pictures because this was just too amazing.

The first thing our group did was find Anne Frank's house. After we
found it, we went to a place called the Pancake Bakery. Their pancakes
are world famous, and are bigger than any pancake I have ever seen
before Not only that, but they had just about anything you wanted on
there as well. Colleen, Amy, and I all got one with bananas, chocolate
sauce and whipped cream. The bananas practically melted on the
pancake! Zach ate one with peaches and vanilla ice cream. I'm pretty
proud that I finished the entire meal haha.

We then went back to Anne Frank's house to get a tour. It was
incredible. The house was extremely eerie because of the fact that
there was basically nothing left; the Germans had raided the entire
home. They had pictures of the house before so we could compare how
much was taken from the Franks. We actually got to walk through the
bookcase that hid the Franks for over 2 years, and I'm shocked that 8
people could live in that small space. There was a room that two people
slept in, but it was also the kitchen and the study room. It was
probably no bigger than my cabin room on the ship, and if it was, it was
only slightly. We were not allowed to take pictures while going through
the museum, and we had to wear our backpacks on our front to make sure
we didn't accidentally hit anything.

There were also some videos and live footage of what occurred in the
concentration camps, and live testimonies from those who knew Anne and
her family. I ended up buying a book that is composed of 6 different
stories from women who knew Anne while she was in the concentration
camps, and it's called "The Last 7 Months of Anne's Life."

The museum was definitely a great highlight of Amsterdam, and I would
highly recommend everyone to visit it, because you learn so much and
it's extremely moving.

We also went on a canal cruise afterwards. That was pretty fun, and the
sight was great as we traveled through the many canals of Amsterdam. We
learned a lot about the architecture and we even saw where the Mayor lives!

All in all, I had a great time, and would love to go back again someday!

I promise I'll write about Portugal too, and some more ship life :)

SH