[Amsterdam / Zaanse Schans, NL, May 27, 2024]

I couldn’t sleep last night, so I started looking at the Rick Steves Audio Europe app to familiarize myself with the Jordaan neighborhood walk. It turned out the walk goes right by the Anne Frank House, which I had a 9 am ticket for. So I decided to start the walk, pause for my Anne Frank House visit, then finish it. I was glad I caught this, since it was going to save me a lot of time on a day I hoped to squeeze in the rest of my Amsterdam wish list.

The Jordaan walk began at Dam Square, which was also on yesterday’s walk and was just a few minutes on foot from my hotel. From there, I ducked into the street between the Royal Palace and the Nieuwe Kerk. The building that had caught my eye there before was on the tour! The Magna Plaza is a magnificent Neo-Gothic building that used to be the post office. It is now a shopping center, but it also remains a Dutch National Monument.

I crossed the Singel canal over the Torensluis Bridge and marveled at the statue of Multatuli (1820-1887).
In 1860, Eduard Douwes Dekker published his novel Max Havelaar under the pseudonym of Multatuli. The novel denounced the abuses of colonialism in the Dutch East Indies (today’s Indonesia). He is considered one of the most important Dutch writers of all time.

This area was really beautiful. I couldn’t help but take more photos of the houses, including their gables. They come in many different shapes, although the bell gable is the most common.

Just down the street was the Homomonument (this is really what it’s called!). It commemorates gays and lesbians who have been persecuted because of their sexual orientation. It opened on 5 September 1987 and it was the first monument in the world to commemorate gays and lesbians who were killed by the German Nazi regime. The monument is comprised of three large pink triangles made of granite, set into the ground, which together compose a larger triangle. One of the triangles is on the bank of the Keizersgracht canal, while another sits right in front the historic Westerkerk church.

The Westerkerk was built between 1620 and 1631. Several older churches in Amsterdam, such as the Oude Kerk and Nieuwe Kerk, were originally built before the Reformation and were converted to Protestantism during the Reformation in 1578. The Westerkerk was one of the first purpose-built Protestant churches. Its tower is the highest in Amsterdam but it was unfortunately covered for restoration work. Rembrandt was buried in this church, although nobody knows where exactly.

The church is really close to the Anne Frank House, and a memorial statue of her is located outside.

This is where I paused the tour to get in line for the Anne Frank House. I had arrived about 15 minutes early and there were only a handful of people already in line.

Anne’s hiding place at 263 Prinzengracht became world-known when her father, the only person in the group of 8 that hid with her there to survive the Holocaust, published her diary. The house was Otto Frank’s place of business. The family had emigrated from Germany in 1934, when Anne was four. But in May 1940, the Nazis invaded the Netherlands and started to gradually restrict the lives of Jews there. By mid-1942, the mass deportation of Jews from the Netherlands had begun. For her birthday that June, Anne received a white-and-red checkered notebook, which became her diary. She started writing in it almost immediately, detailing the many restrictions already in place.

The family had already decided to go into hiding at 263 Prinzengracht in July of 1942. But their plans got moved up when their older daughter Margot received a callup notice ordering her to appear for a “relocation to a work camp.” That notice was displayed in the museum, together with all kinds of other forms and paperwork from the time period.

Only a few trusted employees from Otto’s business knew that the family was hiding in the secret annex behind the main house. The entrance to the annex was soon covered by a bookcase, and the window next to it was painted. Another family of 3 joined the hiding place later in July, followed up the final person, a dentist, that October. The family had to keep quiet during the day, as the work in the office continued as usual. The helpers’ task of keeping the family safe grew more difficult, as the Nazis rationed food through coupons. Still, they managed to keep them hidden for almost 2 years. But then, for a reason nobody knows, the German Uniformed Police burst into the house and discovered the secret annex in August 1944. All 8 people were deported to concentration camps, where Anne died of typhus in February 1945. The helpers found her diary and loose pages she wrote on, and returned them to her father, who came back to Amsterdam after the war. He published her diary in 1950.

The story of the eight people in hiding was told as we moved from room to room in the front house, before we finally entered the secret annex in the back through the stairs behind the bookcase. Photos are not allowed here, but there are plenty of photos of the entrance in the public domain.

We got to see Anne’s room, which still had stickers and posters on the wall. In another room, the places were Otto and Edith marked their daughters’ heights were still visible. The exhibit ended with her white-and-red checkered dairy, and the loose pages she began writing on once her original diary was full. It was all very haunting.

I spent some time after my visit just walking around the neighborhood absorbing and reflecting on what I had just experienced. The sun was out and it was a beautiful morning. It was so hard to believe these beautiful homes had some pretty awful stories to tell.

I finished the Jordaan walk on the Rick Steves Audio Europe app. Most of the stops were quirky shops and homes along the canals. The final stop was another hidden courtyard, just like the Begeijnhof.

Afterwards, I strolled the 9 little streets. This intimate shopping area between the Singel, Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht is filled with one-of-a-kind boutiques, stylish cafés and galleries.

By this time it was almost 11, which meant that the Dutch herring stand I had noticed on Saturday was about to open. I was their first customer for the day and enjoyed the famous herring Amsterdam style and and order of Kibbeling – fried cod – which had just been prepared. They were both delicious!

I had learned through an Amsterdam Facebook group I had joined that the Dutch Resistance museum makes for a great visit after Anne Frank House. It was a way to lift one’s spirits with stories of courageous Dutch who resisted the Nazi occupation by any means possible. They published newspapers, stole food ration coupons (this is how many Jews in hiding survived), and created fake identity cards. Dutch men between the ages of 18 and 35 went into hiding also because they were supposed to go to Germany to work in the Nazi war machine. The ways in which the Dutch resisted were tremendous. But there were also other Dutch who joined the Nazis. They pretended to join the resistance, only to betray its members and help the Nazis find Jews in hiding.

I also read about the many moral dilemmas faced by everyone. Many Jews struggled with whether they should sign/complete the many forms the Nazis made them fill out. They could have fairly easily lied about their religion, but they didn’t feel comfortable doing so, even though they already suspected the German labor camps were not as “nice” as the Germans made them out to be. Many Dutch felt uneasy about hiding Jews. Some Dutch families took care of small Jewish kids, whose papers were easier to forge. In many cases, their parents never returned. After the war, many Dutch families wanted to continue to take care of the children, who by then recognized them as their only family. Should the kids be then taken from the only families they knew to go live with actual relatives?

The most stunning thing I learned in this museum, however, was that for 4 years after WWII, the Dutch went to WAR themselves to keep Indonesia, a Dutch colony, from becoming independent. You would think after everything they’d just been through, they’d understand a nation’s desire to be free of occupiers. They only relented after pressure from the newly formed United Nations.

I am not sure the Resistance Museum proved to be as uplifting as I’d hoped. But now it was time to leave Amsterdam for a little side trip to Zaanse Schans. It is best known for its collection of windmills and wooden houses that were relocated here from the wider region north of Amsterdam for preservation, although two of the windmills were constructed here. There are several small museum here. But by know, I was museum-ed out and just enjoyed the gorgeous sunny day and the beautiful scenery.

This was also an excellent place to take photos with those famous Dutch clogs.

The smell of chocolate and stroopwaffels was so strong I had to indulge in this famous Dutch sweet. I took a video of its preparation and I got scolded for not asking for permission first. Keep that in mind – the Dutch are not as lax about privacy as Americans tend to be when it comes to being filmed in public!

Once I got back to Amsterdam, I decided to do the last walk on the Rick Steves Audio Europe app – the infamous De Wallen red light district. My hotel was just on the edge of it, so it was easy to do. The area is, ironically, anchored by the Oude Kerk, which I had yet to see in its glory.

De Wallen is the largest and best known red-light district in Amsterdam. It consists of a network of alleys containing approximately 300 one-room cabins rented by prostitutes who offer their sexual services from behind a window or glass door, typically illuminated with red lights and blacklight. Window prostitution is the most visible and typical kind of red-light district sex work in Amsterdam.

Although some storefronts still sported the infamous neon red lights above and some even had ladies in them despite the early evening hour, it was obvious the area is quickly becoming gentrified. The Dutch government is not always renewing licenses for the red light district, and so many other businesses have sprung up amongst the ladies.

The area also has a number of sex shops, sex theatres, peep shows, a sex museum, a cannabis museum, and a number of coffee shops that sell cannabis.

I really enjoyed passing by the area known as Little Venice. The buildings here are directly in the water.

Although I was tired, I resisted the urge to grab something quick to eat and went back to Spui square. One of the alleys there had grabbed my attention on the first day and I sat down at a pizza place there to have one final meal in Amsterdam.

It as a busy last day in Amsterdam, but I knew I’d have time to relax once I made it home to Sofia.