We got up the next morning and we knew exactly what our plan was, to go to the Anne Frank House and to eat at the best pancake house in Amsterdam, which, ironically, was next to the Anne Frank House. 
All the tour books said to arrive at the Anne Frank House early or you will stand in a queue forever. Seeing as we slept in until about 10:30AM we weren't exactly early. Sure enough upon our arrival there was a line. It didn't look too bad and then we went around the corner and saw the real line. Standing in line I discovered my refugee look of the trip. 
It was cold so I put my hat on and then I took my hood from my sweater and put that over the hat and then I wrapped my scarf around my face. It was so attractive, NOT! The wait wasn't actually too bad. I have stood in line at Disney longer. We got inside and paid 7 Euros. If you have never read Anne's book, I will give you a brief description to bring you up to speed. During WWII, Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl who was forced into hiding when the Nazi's started invading every European country. They were able to hide at her Father's work, a jam factory, in a secret annex of a canal house for several years until the Nazi's were tipped off about them in August 1944 (they never found out who tipped them off). Eight people in total hid in the annex and were helped by Anne's father's friends at the Jam factory. All but 7 people died in concentration camps. Anne died 1 month before the Americans liberated her camp. Her father, Otto survived and upon his return, he was given his daughter's diary by Miep, one of the people who helped hide them (in a video at the house, after reading the diary he said it broke his heart that he hadn't really known who his daughter was - he was surprised by all the emotion her diary detailed). 
Miep, knew of Anne's love of writing and had found it after the Nazi's had taken the family away and quickly took it before the Nazi's came back to clear out the furniture. I had read the book back in the 7th or 8th grade. My teacher, Mr. Rumsey, made us pick out books each month and if you didn't find a book he picked one for you. The month prior to reading Anne Frank, he picked this horrid but entertaining biography on Lizzie Borden, so suffice to say, I was really nervous and determined not to find another "girl goes crazy and hacks her parents to death with an ax book" but the pressure got to me and once again I couldn't find anything. This time he gave me, Anne Frank's Diary, which if you haven't read it, is an amazing book written by a 13 year old, whose wish was to become a writer. 
The hub hadn't read the book so we had two types of people walking through the house. A reader and a non-reader but it didn't seem to matter because we both were highly moved by the house. After the Nazi's came to take the people away they came back to remove all the belongings. When the house became a museum they had all the furniture rebuilt to how Anne's father described it. But when we visited all the furniture was removed and there were certain items on display in each room. I don't think the house needed all the items to get what these people went through. It was weird to walk through the little area and know that only sixty years ago people had to hide there from a crazy dictator. Behind a bookcase in the office building was the entrance to the hiding place and there the four Frank family members lived with another couple and their son and another older man. They basically had to be quiet all during the day and had to have all the windows covered up. 
They relied on their friends for food, which got to be rough further into the war as food wasn't always available. Anne's book describes a girl with a vivid imagination. You can't believe that someone would want her, this beautiful girl inside and out, dead just because she picked a religion that wasn't popular to some crazy power hungry dictator. As I toured her room, there still were pictures of movie stars posted on her walls. Those hadn't been removed. I think at that moment I teared up. I related to this girl because she loved Hollywood, movie stars and loved to write. To help get her through she would glue pictures of Hollywood and theatre stars on her walls. When I saw those it made the place real to me. For a secret hiding place, it seemed big yet still small when you considered 8 people lived there. We not only toured the secret rooms but the office building where they would sneak around at night when people had left to go home for the evening. These people must of been bored out of their minds yet by writing in a journal it kept one girl from going crazy. After seeing the house and what it was like for them your heart ached even more that she didn't survive. 1 month was all she had to hold out for and she would have been ok. But I guess then perhaps her diary wouldn't have been published. It really was her story that put a face on the horrible tragedy of the concentration camp. Translated into 55 languages and printed millions of times her book really touched the world. This little girl who was writing to pass time made a difference with her words. As you went through the house they had various items on display and then they had videos of the people that helped hide them and people that knew them before and in the concentration camps. At the end they even had the original diary on display. That was perhaps was the biggest surprise, to see her written word on display in it's original format. If you ever go to Amsterdam, you should really check out the house. It's very moving. Not sure how to transition except to say we went to eat pancakes next. 
There was a mini line for that as well but it was worth the wait. Again, the place was so crowded we were seated at a table with two other men. I believe they were Italy and really didn't care what the hub and I were talking about so we were free to have a good time. If you go to Amsterdam you must try The Pancake Bakery. It's not in the tour guide but we had read about it online. 
The pancakes are more crepe like and huge. There are a million ways to order. As I was perusing the menu I found it funny that under "The Mexican" there was pineapple listed. In fact the ingredients for "The Mexican" didn't really sound Mexican at all. I picked the ham and cheese and the hub chose the nutella, savory pancake. He also ordered hot-coca. Suffice to say, when the food came, it was gone quite quickly. It was so tasty we tried to figure out when we could come back.
All the tour books said to arrive at the Anne Frank House early or you will stand in a queue forever. Seeing as we slept in until about 10:30AM we weren't exactly early. Sure enough upon our arrival there was a line. It didn't look too bad and then we went around the corner and saw the real line. Standing in line I discovered my refugee look of the trip. 
It was cold so I put my hat on and then I took my hood from my sweater and put that over the hat and then I wrapped my scarf around my face. It was so attractive, NOT! The wait wasn't actually too bad. I have stood in line at Disney longer. We got inside and paid 7 Euros. If you have never read Anne's book, I will give you a brief description to bring you up to speed. During WWII, Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl who was forced into hiding when the Nazi's started invading every European country. They were able to hide at her Father's work, a jam factory, in a secret annex of a canal house for several years until the Nazi's were tipped off about them in August 1944 (they never found out who tipped them off). Eight people in total hid in the annex and were helped by Anne's father's friends at the Jam factory. All but 7 people died in concentration camps. Anne died 1 month before the Americans liberated her camp. Her father, Otto survived and upon his return, he was given his daughter's diary by Miep, one of the people who helped hide them (in a video at the house, after reading the diary he said it broke his heart that he hadn't really known who his daughter was - he was surprised by all the emotion her diary detailed). 
Miep, knew of Anne's love of writing and had found it after the Nazi's had taken the family away and quickly took it before the Nazi's came back to clear out the furniture. I had read the book back in the 7th or 8th grade. My teacher, Mr. Rumsey, made us pick out books each month and if you didn't find a book he picked one for you. The month prior to reading Anne Frank, he picked this horrid but entertaining biography on Lizzie Borden, so suffice to say, I was really nervous and determined not to find another "girl goes crazy and hacks her parents to death with an ax book" but the pressure got to me and once again I couldn't find anything. This time he gave me, Anne Frank's Diary, which if you haven't read it, is an amazing book written by a 13 year old, whose wish was to become a writer. 
The hub hadn't read the book so we had two types of people walking through the house. A reader and a non-reader but it didn't seem to matter because we both were highly moved by the house. After the Nazi's came to take the people away they came back to remove all the belongings. When the house became a museum they had all the furniture rebuilt to how Anne's father described it. But when we visited all the furniture was removed and there were certain items on display in each room. I don't think the house needed all the items to get what these people went through. It was weird to walk through the little area and know that only sixty years ago people had to hide there from a crazy dictator. Behind a bookcase in the office building was the entrance to the hiding place and there the four Frank family members lived with another couple and their son and another older man. They basically had to be quiet all during the day and had to have all the windows covered up. 
They relied on their friends for food, which got to be rough further into the war as food wasn't always available. Anne's book describes a girl with a vivid imagination. You can't believe that someone would want her, this beautiful girl inside and out, dead just because she picked a religion that wasn't popular to some crazy power hungry dictator. As I toured her room, there still were pictures of movie stars posted on her walls. Those hadn't been removed. I think at that moment I teared up. I related to this girl because she loved Hollywood, movie stars and loved to write. To help get her through she would glue pictures of Hollywood and theatre stars on her walls. When I saw those it made the place real to me. For a secret hiding place, it seemed big yet still small when you considered 8 people lived there. We not only toured the secret rooms but the office building where they would sneak around at night when people had left to go home for the evening. These people must of been bored out of their minds yet by writing in a journal it kept one girl from going crazy. After seeing the house and what it was like for them your heart ached even more that she didn't survive. 1 month was all she had to hold out for and she would have been ok. But I guess then perhaps her diary wouldn't have been published. It really was her story that put a face on the horrible tragedy of the concentration camp. Translated into 55 languages and printed millions of times her book really touched the world. This little girl who was writing to pass time made a difference with her words. As you went through the house they had various items on display and then they had videos of the people that helped hide them and people that knew them before and in the concentration camps. At the end they even had the original diary on display. That was perhaps was the biggest surprise, to see her written word on display in it's original format. If you ever go to Amsterdam, you should really check out the house. It's very moving. Not sure how to transition except to say we went to eat pancakes next. 
There was a mini line for that as well but it was worth the wait. Again, the place was so crowded we were seated at a table with two other men. I believe they were Italy and really didn't care what the hub and I were talking about so we were free to have a good time. If you go to Amsterdam you must try The Pancake Bakery. It's not in the tour guide but we had read about it online. 
The pancakes are more crepe like and huge. There are a million ways to order. As I was perusing the menu I found it funny that under "The Mexican" there was pineapple listed. In fact the ingredients for "The Mexican" didn't really sound Mexican at all. I picked the ham and cheese and the hub chose the nutella, savory pancake. He also ordered hot-coca. Suffice to say, when the food came, it was gone quite quickly. It was so tasty we tried to figure out when we could come back.
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