Amsterdam

I finally made it to Amsterdam this past Saturday! Amazing, I have been here for over 2 months now and I had not gone. I must say that I was very impressed! Of course the last time I was there in the city was 10 or 11 years ago when I stayed there on the way back from the Ukraine. Gosh it is so hard to believe it's been that long, I'm getting old. Well anyway Amsterdam has to be, if not the most beautiful, one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to in the world. Of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder but in my opinion it is one great place. Romantic old canals lined with picturesque old houses, you just can't beat it. Oh well, I will let you know when I have been to some more European cities. So anyway, I went to Amsterdam on Saturday with a girl from my Dutch class (Joanna) and her Dutch boyfriend. We had a good time and most of the time I did not feel like a 3rd wheel surprisingly enough. We first went to the Van Gogh museum which was fantastic before enjoying a lunch at one of the local restaurants. Then we went to the Anne Frank house where she and her family hid in a secret annex of her father's warehouse during the German occupation of Holland until they were discovered and captured by the Nazis in WWII. That was the highlight of the day for me and a very moving experience. I highly recommend visiting it if you are ever in Amsterdam. After that we walked around the city for a bit talking in the canals before heading to the car and back to Rotterdam.

It doesn't sound like we did a lot but there is so much to see and one really could spend a whole week in Amsterdam alone and not get bored I am sure. Well it seems lately I am being exposed more and more to stories from life in Europe during WWII. First the meeting of Ineke's 92 year old grandfather (see previous blog entry), and now the Anne Frank house. At the museum I picked up a book "The last seven months of Anne Frank" which contains the stories of six women who were in the concentration camps with Anne Frank. It seems the more I learn about the holocaust it just rips my heart out even more. The stories in this book are so vivid and the mental pictures are frightening. Eating dinner tonight I could not help but think about the starving Jews in the camps and how blest I am to simply have a good meal and a comfortable place to live. Well it certainly has made me appreciate what I have and makes me want to fight for human rights or some worth while cause . Maybe I will join Bono and fight for Africa or something.

Well I probably won't blog until next week when I get back from Austria/Slovakia. God bless you all and don't forget to leave a comment or two so I can know who reads this stuff.