A bit about the neighborhood before we talk about the museum: If you visit Amsterdam, they will tell you to get off the tram at Westenkerk. The problem is that the announced stop on the tram is Westenmarkt. And although most people in Amsterdam speak English, they prefer to speak Dutch, all of the announcements on transport is in Dutch, and the tram drivers can tend to be rude. (Though in the interest of fairness, a couple of them that I met were very nice to me.)Walking around the streets of Amsterdam, you may begin to wonder whether the smell of cannabis (which can be smelled all over the place) might be affecting you. Do some of the houses seem to lean outward? Is this poor craftsmanship? Is this design?
Once you cross the Market, you'll walk along the canal a short way and the Anne Frank House is on your left. It sits in an unremarkable neighborhood of unremarkable houses. This picture is of one of the houses opposite the museum across the canal. I took it because of the seagull perched on the top of the finial atop the gable. It just looked cool!I am sure most of you are familiar with the story so I won't linger too much on it here. I will only say that reading the book thirty years ago in school I was in no way prepared for the reality of seeing it in person.
You enter the house through an annex that has been built to one side of the original structure. They have brochures that explain all the rooms and gloss the tour with excepts from the journals. Be prepared to be moved. It is a place of powerful emotional energy. The entire house has been preserved and restored as a reminder, a memorial and a lesson.
There are film clips, pictures, more excerpts from the diaries that narrate your trip through the house. I was struck repeatedly by the size of it all. Eight people lived in this space! It is no wonder Anne is always telling us of the strife from being enclosed with all those people in such a small space!
If you are a living, feeling being, you will be moved. I am not ashamed to note that I found myself near tears on a number of occasions. I stopped at the newsagent at the train station on my way back to the hotel this evening to buy a copy of the diary. I am re-reading it after all these years. I think I will probably get a lot more out of this second reading.
I was glad that I went to the museum when I did. The lines may have appeared long to me when I arrived at two. By four thirty, when I left, the lines were vastly longer. Wrapping along the walk by the road to the little square and around the corner. My hotelier had been right about the timing! I have to be sure to thank him tomorrow when I see him.
After the museum, I went walking through the tourist markets. I walked the streets of shops selling everything the heart could desire. Wallets, luggage, clothing, and foodstuffs jumble the small shops on either side of the streets. The proprietors jostling each other to get your attention and hopefully your business.
About sunset, I decided to head back to the hotel, get a shower, write these notes and head off to dinner. And as such, this seems an opportune place to break the narrative for the day. So, until tomorrow…
I hope that wherever you are today, things are going your way!
Don Bergquist - 16 February 2007 - Amsterdam, Holland, The Netherlands
2 comments:
Did you notice the protrusion on the houses (clearly visible in your seagull picture)? Most of these merchant's houses served as warehouses as well, this is the attachment point for a pully system to lift cargo up - storing it above and living below was a deterrent to theft.
Dear Anonymous Reader,
I had noticed the hoists on the gables of most of the houses. They set me in mind of the hoists that used to be used in the Midwestern US to haul hay into the haylofts above the barns there.
It was explained to me that as the average width of the canal houses in Amsterdam is only about 6 meters (about 18 feet) the houses were too narrow to haul furniture into and up what is commonly called an ankle-bender stairway. The protuberances you notice were also used for getting furniture into the upper rooms of the houses.
djb
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