Amsterdam

The girls had set alarms for 9 am Amsterdam time six weeks before our trip to get tickets for the day we would be in The Netherlands to visit Anne Frank’s house. We stopped by there years ago when it was not such a huge complex, very well run and so sad but informative. It is the first museum where I was given an audio recorder that worked simply and correctly. No buttons to push. Tap it on the number at the door or wall and listen. Worked every time. 

The famous Anne Frank sign listing Rules for Jews.

Jews have to wear a Jewish star; Jews have to hand in their bicycles; Jews are not allowed in the tram; Jews are not allowed to ride in cars, not in private ones either; Jews are only allowed to do their shopping between 3 – 5, except in Jewish shops.

Front door of the house where the Frank family lived for two years.

8

Timeline of the Frank family from 1929-1945.  It struck me as an entire lifetime as my mother was born in 1927 and I was born in 1945.

The kids were going to the Van Gogh museum but we had visited it on our previous visit.

We decided to give the HoHo bus another try.  We located the closest stop which was very near the ship.  We had taken a 10 minute taxi drive so it was not real close.  Not only not real close,  it was on the other side of the water and we had to walk to the cross over.  By that time we were closer to the ship than the bus so we just got back on board.

Next up was Highclere Castle, better known to US citizens as Downton Abbey.  THIS WAS THE HIGHLIGHT!  I'll give it a page all its own.