West Amsterdam

Anne Frank House

I had spent the last two weeks before our trip to Amsterdam, reading Anne Frank’s diary. I had studied the book at school and wanted to re-read it in full.

We had spent the last two mornings in the queue to get tickets for Anne Frank’s house or the Secret Annex as she preferred to call it. Tickets can be brought online, where 80% of tickets are released two months before and the remainder are released at 9am every morning. It was disappointing that we didn’t get tickets to see inside the Annex but we took a walk to the house itself.

It is a very small building with an extension to it which is the museum. I cannot imagine how eight people lived in such a small space together.

Anne Frank House

Anne Frank House

If you want to get tickets to the Anne Frank House, you will need to book the tickets before you book your trip as it is quite a popular attraction.

Around the corner at Westerkerk Church there is a statue of Anne Frank, which is a lovely tribute.

Anne Frank

The Stolpersteine project

We learnt at our walking tour that there is a project called the Stolperstein project where brass plated cobblestones are in scripted with the names of victims of Nazi persecution. We walked past a few whilst on our walking tour. They are laid out in front of houses that the people lived to commemorate them. It is a continuing project with over 70,000 laid out all over Europe.

Homomonument – Gay Monument

Alongside the Keizersgracht canal, there is the Homomonument. This monument remembers and commemorate all gay men and women who have been persecuted due to their sexuality. The monument itself is a shown as a triangle which has three pink triangles inside each point. Each triangle points towards the direction of each significant building – the Anne Frank House, the Dutch War Memorial and the Headquarters of the COC Nederland Group (the Dutch Gay right group).

It was the first monument of its kind in Europe to commemorate gay men and lesbians to commemorate those who were killed and persecuted by the Nazi’s. It is so large we could not take a full photo of it.

Jordaan

After the heaviness of paying tribute to Anne Frank and visiting the Homomonument, we took a walk to the area of Jordaan. This is a very small quiet part of Amsterdam it was so small that by late morning, the shops and cafes were just starting to open.

There is a collection of quirky shops and restaurants. It is a well kept area but it is much quieter than most areas in the city.

It is definitely a hidden gem and worth paying a visit as it is not a touristic area so you can an idea what it is like to live in Amsterdam.

Overall, we enjoyed our few days in Amsterdam - next stop Dutch Comic Con!

What I read on this trip

Gene Simmons on Power

What does this button do? Bruce Dickinson