Thurs 20th - Amsterdam

We started out the day with a mission - to 1. visit Madame Tussauds' wax museum and 2. visit Anne Frank's house.

The whole day we used the hotel's freebie map which does not label most of the streets, so we just guessed which way to walk most of the time.

We love wax museums--and Madame Tussauds was great! The first figures were depictions of historical figures of The Netherlands (I didn't recognize any of them). The rest of the figures were famous people and celebrities from around the world. The great thing about Madame Tussauds is that you are allowed to get right up next to the figures so you can get in pictures with them. Most other wax museums we've been to prohibit crossing behind a rope so you have to admire them from a distance. I've uploaded several pictures to facebook, but I took way too many pictures in there!

We then searched for the Anne Frank House, the secret annex where Anne Frank and her family lived in hiding during the war. We had to wait in a short line to get in, but once we were in, there are postings from her journal written on the walls and there are several short film clips describing the history of the place and people. I read Anne Frank's Diary a long time for school and my mental image of the place was much different. I always imagined the bookcase being on the first floor and then the hiding place being on the second. Actually, the bookcase which hides the stairway to the upper floor is on the second (or third?) floor of the building. Once we were in the area where the family hid, I read that all the furniture was removed and that Anne's father requested that it forever be left empty.

The blacked-out windows created an eerie atmosphere and I can't even imagine what it would be like to be locked up there and not even be able to leave the room, run water, or flush the toilet during the whole day while there were workers present in the warehouse below.

I learned a lot more about the Franks' history from the short time we were there.

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After that, Mom and I walked around looking for little shops in the 9 streets area. We found an excellent ice-cream place next to the houseboat museum. Then we started looking for the china town area for lunch. Completely on accident (the map we had did not have it marked) I think we passed through the edge of the red light district (whoops..:). We did make it to the china town area and ate some delicious thai food.

Our final destination was the botanical gardens, but we never reached it before our feet gave up on us. We were gone from the hotel about 7hrs, spending most of the time walking. We found a whole canal lined with houseboats (and these things are like actual houses that someone decided to put on boats). I saw one houseboat with a garden onboard. In the distance, we saw a ship that looked like one from Pirates of the Carribean, but it turned out to be an actual battleship from back in the day. (it was huge! picture on fb).

We made it back to the hotel and we are pooped. Gotta rest up for tomorrow!