In Amsterdam

August 8-9

On the morning of August 8th, we left Paris by train bound for Amsterdam. I spent the train ride reading, dozing and taking in the pleasant country-side scenery of the France, Belgium and the Netherlands. We arrived at Amsterdam Centraal several hours later and headed for our hotel.

While in Amsterdam, we stayed at the Boutique Hotel View, which I think was my favorite hotel of our trip. Excellent, personal hospitality.... Located in an old canal house on a quiet street with views of the canal, the hotel is a very short walking distance to shopping, dining and entertainment, as well as to numerous museums such as the Anne Frank House and Van Gogh Museums. Our room was surprisingly spacious and the decor is chic, stylish and comfortable. I'd stay there again. : )


By the time we checked in and freshened up, it was mid to late afternoon so we went out for an early dinner. We then walked around the shops and debated on buying long pants and jackets for me and the girls because we were so cold and hadn't packed enough warm clothing for our trip! It turns out Amsterdam [and France and Germany] had an unusually cold summer this year. We went back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit while my husband went online and purchased advance tickets to the Anne Frank House for the following morning. We went back out for dessert and when we were about a block from our hotel it started pouring! We had umbrellas, but were still pretty soaked by the time we found a little Italian restaurant for tiramisu and chocolate cake. It was the perfect night for some comforting desserts, that's for sure!

View of the canal from the Anne Frank House

The following morning we walked from our hotel to the Anne Frank House, which was one of my favorite places we visited on our trip. This was the house in which Anne Frank hid from the Nazis for over two years with her family and four others. I knew the basic facts of the Anne Frank story, but I learned so much more visiting the museum. Not only that, but learning more about the Anne Frank story in the exact house in which they hid made this educational experience so much more profound and emotional. This visit will stay with my for a very long time.

Unfortunately, photography is prohibited in the museum, so I don't have any photos of the inside of the Anne Frank House. I don't even have a good photo of the outside! There are plenty of great photos at the museum website, though.

For more information about Anne Frank and the Anne Frank House museum, visit http://www.annefrank.org. This website is phenomenal. It hosts an amazing amount of information and detail about the Anne Frank story and the German Invasion in general as well as information about the museum and other inspiring and interactive pages. If you're ever in Amsterdam, I highly recommend you visit the Anne Frank House and Museum. Stay at the Boutique Hotel View when you do.

We would have loved to have had more time to explore Amsterdam, but this was all we had time to do this time as we had reservations on a train for Berlin that afternoon--and we decided we had to take an hour to buy those warmer clothes which we definitely needed that afternoon and in the days to come in Germany. At least now I know what to do first the next time we visit Amsterdam--starting with taking time to walk or bike along the canals and visit the other museums including the Van Gogh Museum.

Some little things I liked about Amsterdam:
•The canals.
•Bicycles everywhere!
•There's a parking deck at Amsterdam Centraal [major train station] just for bicycles!
•There was a sweet dog living at the hotel who greeted us in the lobby as well as two sweet kittens in the back room. Daughters abducted one of the kittens to our room for about 10 minutes at one point. Lots of cooing and giggling going on. ; )

Coming up next... Berlin, Germany!