Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Over the weekend I randomly visited Amsterdam, which was one of the best impulse trips of all time. Most people would have gone there sooner since it is only 4 hours away from where I am living in Hannover, but I guess I had never really thought of it as somewhere high on my list since I am not a traditional "lets go to Amsterdam and smoke legal joints" type of tourist. What you will find in Amsterdam away from the "coffee shops" and the red light district; is a city filled with interesting buildings, beautiful canals, and rich history. 

 

Admittedly I did not get as long as I would have liked to see everything, but I did find time to visit the Anne Frank Museum which was one of the most moving experiences I have had in Europe.
I had "The Diary of a Young Girl" read to me by a teacher when I was quite young, and I remember even then I wanted to know what happened after the book ended, it sparked that curiosity about the Holocaust and how such a thing could happen. To an 8 year old, the concept of such a thing was really quite alien. So walking through the warehouse where the Frank family was hidden during the war, seeing the photos of actors and actresses Anne had cut out of the magazines that had been smuggled to her by her fathers business partner. It was really quite traumatizing. 

So to recover from that, bicycle riding around the canals as well as various photo opportunities.

One interesting thing my friend Ben taught me about Amsterdam is that the buildings are built on a very slight lean, this was to facilitate raising and lowering things from street level without obstructing any of the other levels or having the object bashing against the side of the building.

A good example of just how popular a bicycle is in Holland, that particular well known fact is very accurate.

And here are some very random things I stumbled across while wandering about, this was just a strange window...

And some very strange street art...

And apparently these girls were having an awesome "Wheres Wally?" party!

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam - the Wikipedia entry for Amsterdam

http://www.annefrank.org/ - the webpage of the Anne Frank Museum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_frank - the Wikipedia entry for Anne Frank