Amsterdam - Anne Frank house and Rijk museum

We have had three rainy days. The first was in London when we went to the tower of London and saw the WWI poppy memorial. The second was our Flanders field tour. And the third our Anne Frank visit. All helped to set the mood. Though for Anne Frank we had to stand in an outdoor queue for an you in the rain. They handed out umbrellas and everything.

The Anne Frank house was well worth the wait. No photography allowed because it ruins the emotional moments for others? Not much to photograph anyways as the rooms are left empty. They did have photographs of what they looked like furnished.

I had no idea that Anne was keeping the diary 1 - to have something to do and focus on while in hiding. And 2- so after the war she could put it in a book. She was even rewriting and editing her own work as she went. She had 3 journals - the diary, a notebook of quotes she found interesting, and one of her own poems and stories. Sad she died one month before the end of the war. The exhibit touches on the fact that there were so many more victims of WWII than just Anne Frank. Anyways I can really describe how the exhibit was set up. Just think you walk up the steps to the second floor and through these furnitureless rooms. Everton walked around the edges of the room to read the photo captions. In the kitchen area i just stepped into the middle of the rooms and took in the whole room the tourists walking the perimeter. The photos displaying the absent furniture. I wonder how it would be to be young and never able to go outside. Rarely see the sun. Rarely move in the daily.

Next we walked to the Rijk Museum this is an art gallery focusing on Dutch artists from the 1600's to today. We stood in line for an you to get in.

Photos were allowed! These were believed to be unicorn horns though they are narwhal tusks.

One of the more famous art pieces they have is Rembrandts Night Watch. This painting wad do huge at one point it had to be cut down to fit in the space it was hung.

The other piece is Vemeer's painting the Milkmaid. A very simple piece but looking closer there is a lot of attention to detail.

There was a whole section just on classic instruments. They have some very unique Oboes. I took a photo of the dulcimer for my mom!

All very worthwhile. We spent 3 hours in the museum. All the w as lking and looking through history took its toll and we ended back at the hostel leaving the Van Gogh museum for another day. The internet in the hostel is quite laggy and my posts error out a lot.thus sporadic updates.