Day 17 A wet day in Amsterdam

Crossing roads in any city has its complications and  today in Amsterdam we experienced three unique complications, trams, pushbikes and rain. The roads here are complicated by the fact that traffic seems to often come from a number of different directions and also because many of the roads are paved using the same material as the footpath and bike tracks. There is little to distinguish each area, so if you are not concentrating you can easily  find yourself standing in the way of oncoming traffic, the most frightening of which are the pushbikes who have no patience at all with lowly pedestrians. The rain also creates challenges for the bike riders themselves and in spite of the weather they were out in full force with a variety of different types of wet weather protection. We are amused when we notice a couple of glamorous female bike riders riding with one hand on the handlebars and the other holding a dainty umbrella. We were even more amused later in the day when we noticed another elegant lady riding with two hands on the handlebars while her male passenger, who was being doubled on the back, holding an umbrella over both of them.

As the rain tumbled down we unpacked our wet weather gear and headed off to town on foot through Amsterdam’s main city park, Vondelpark. A 3km walk brought us to the centre of Amsterdam. But as the rain increases we decide to replace our walking shoes with a three-day unlimited tram ticket and began to explore this unusual city.

The highlight of the day is our visit The Anne Frank  House, a museum set up in the actual house in which Anne and her family and four others hid for two years during WW2. To walk into the secret annex which was hidden behind a bookcase, to see her pictures on her bedroom wall, to view her handwritten diary entries, to hear friends and her father on video recounting her tragedy  and to be reminded that in the end they were betrayed to the Nazis just months before the end of the war, was incredibly sad.

Anne Frank’s childhood dream was to become a writer and whilst in hiding she envisioned writing a book about her wartime experiences. Thanks to the efforts of her father, who was the only member of the group to survive the war, her dreams came true and her story is one of the most famous of all war stories.

Museums are a great place to visit on a rainy day but they can be  physical reminders that history is not just the story of kings, dictators, armies and battles but is also the story of individual people and how they cope with the forces around them. We leave this museum haunted by the injustices suffered by one girl and her family and reminded that her story was repeated millions of times over.