We were so grateful to Georg and Helen, our hosts, who offered to let
us keep our room until we needed to leave for the train station to catch the
train at 7 in the evening. This meant
that we did not need to pack up and carry our bags to the train station for the
day, in the rain as we got going. Bless their kindness.
We did get up fairly early and caught the tram in the rain
to wait in line to see Anne Frank’s House.
Although we arrived about ten minutes after it opened at 9:00, the line
took us a 2 hour wait. We were very
touched at the people from around the world who come to pay homage to this
young teenager who wrote from the heart about life and what it was like to be
from a regular middle class family and be forced to go into hiding for 2
years. In the end, the family was
somehow betrayed and all died in a concentration camp except for Anne’s father,
Otto Frank. Anne herself died only one
month before the allies arrived and freed the camp.
The home was done in a manner that allowed people to go
deeply into the experience, with the actual rooms and interviews with her father and some of the people who helped
to the family. And much of it was told in Anne’s own words. Amazing!
She had hoped to become a writer, and her words have been translated
into 80 languages. Wow! It was a privilege to be there.
Another great lunch, then we went to the Tulip Museum were
we got to learn more about the history of tulips in Holland. At one point, the tulip bulbs were considered
so precious that people would pay the amount you would pay for a house to buy only
three bulbs. This did not last, and there was a huge crash. It was a fascinating tale.
Next door was The Cheese Museum, with great samples, a
chance to learn more abut how cheese is made, and a delightful conversation
with the young woman who worked there.
She is hoping to travel to California, Florida or Texas (someplace
warm!) when she finishes college in a couple of years. There were chance to get your photo taken as a Dutch girl getting milk and making cheese. How could Patti pass this up?
Back to our Amsterdam home one last time for an afternoon
nap before hauling our luggage to the train station. We are glad to began our
travels as lightly as we had, because we have been picking up heavy things as
we go along. Light begins to seem heavy as you drag things on and off of public transportation.
We splurged on a couchette car, with two triple bunk beds
that we ended up sharing with three other people. We settled in for 12 hours overnight trip to
Denmark.
Patti read and went to sleep quite early. Dick found a spot in the hallway by the
window and watched with fascination as the world rolled by. He loved watching the land, the crops, the
animals, and people living their everyday lives. He got into several interesting conversations
with people who were walking around. He is totally a fan of train travel. We both got some sleep during the night,
although Dick was alert to all of the sounds at each station.
“He stood breathing, and the more he breathed the land in,
the more he was filled up with all the details of the land. He was not empty.
There was more than enough here to fill him. There would always be more than
enough.”
- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
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