A Weekend in Amsterdam

On Friday, we left Norderney and went to Amsterdam. Unfortunately, our first train was canceled, but we managed to figure out a new path and arrived perfectly fine, just a little later than expected. Some of the group went to go explore the red light district, but that was a little more than I though I wanted to see so I went on to bed. In the morning, we visited the Anne Frank house. This museum and the Rijks musem were my favorite parts of Amsterdam. The Anne Frank museum was a very somber place created by her father in honor of her wishes to become an author. When you first walk into the museum, you are shown a short film about the time and the situation of the Jewish people in Germany and the Netherlands during World War II. Then you can proceed throughout the office building and hiding place. The bookshelf that hid the secret door is still there and quotes from Anne's writings are placed on the walls throughout the houe. The thoughts she wrote were so deep for a 13-15 year old girl, and the thoughts of ther father on the films were upsetting and sad to watch. You saw at the beginning of the tour how much he loved this little daughter of his because he brought all of her magazine pictures from their home to their hiding place so that she could make her room seem less empty by pasting them to the walls. At the end, there was a film of Mr. Frank in which he mentioned that most parents will never truly know their children. This museum left me wanting to write and read as much as possible and to leave something good behind me when I myself am gone. I was very happy that even though Anne did not survive the war, her thoughts and writings are known around the world. The Rijks museum was also amazing and unforgettable. We all met there together to buy our tickets but then branched off into all parts of the museum to explore on our own. It is so large that I never saw anyone from our group until five mintes before our set time to meet again. My favorite part of the museum was the first projector. The slides were circles about the size of the bottom of a canned good set alone or in fours in a rectangular wooden frame. They had some pictures of animals and butterflies while others told stories or depicted different trades of the time. I also liked many of the landscape and seascape paintings that were on display, especially the pen drawings of ships. Rembrant sketches are now also another favorite of mine because it only took him a few strokes of chalk or penscil to create amazing life forms. I am very glad that I got the chance to see this museum because my mom told me stories about it and her visit here since I was a little girl.