Thursday 23 June Leer to Amsterdam
It was time to head to Amsterdam to see Anne Frank’s house before the weekend hoards. Driving through rural Holland/Netherlands was pleasant, more flat land full of crops, far more canals and windmills and way more cyclists. Cyclists in Europe ride sensible bikes, with padded seats, practical
baskets and saddle bags and handle bars that make you sit upright. The small urban houses have a window dressing etiquette going on; every house had a display in the road frontage window. Mobiles could hang down but included mainly stars or butterflies, I’m not sure if they stand for something. Most houses go for the windowsill displays which have to be in pairs. You have 2 urns with flowers or plants, or 2 candle lanterns, or 2 statues, or 2 silver ornaments. Some went for a foreign country theme, others looked ostentatious and the rest just looked plain tacky. Most people seem to be very house proud and because they can’t make a plain brown brick or red brick house, that is identical to your neighbours, look flash they put a lot of time into nice gardens and of course window dressings.
Having eaten our lunch in a small town we 
headed for the big smoke of Amsterdam to take our place in the Anne Frank House queue. We had been led to believe Holland doesn’t do free camping but there are options available and we we chose to stay in a secure motorhome park, with most facilities and free wifi, across the harbour from the town centre. For a short walk and a free ferry ride we could end up at Central Station in Amsterdam and take another short walk to Anne’s house.
As we were unable to book for a reserved visit, we had to queue up after the reservation time slots finished which is after 3.00pm. As we walked down the canal there was only a small queue in sight, however on arriving we soon discovered they send the queue down the side street. We started queuing like good English people at 7.00pm and made it to the door at 8.00pm just as the rain came.
I have read the book of 
Anne Frank, been to a travelling museum exhibition and watched a live stage performance of the story. It has been a long awaited dream to visit Anne Frank’s house and the emotion from reading what she and her family went through can be felt while walking through the house even though there is no furniture to get the true feeling of how cramped the space was. There are however photos of how the room was laid out, copies of her diary and small film excerpts. Incredible that Anne’s father had so much foresight to set up the annex and a support network in such a way they could live for 2 years in isolation. It is such a shame Anne and her sister died just months before her father’s release from the concentration camp and the end of a terrible atrocity.
Because it was so light and we hadn’t eaten for a while we called into the nearest “brown café” pub and had some Dutch bar nibbles, frites and beer and then continued home via the free ferry which runs until midnight. Even at 10.30 it was still light.
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Bookcase hiding secret door
Museum display
Cutaway of hideaway