Anne Frank House
Today we had a booking to visit the Anne Frank house at 10 am. The museum was located in the actual old warehouse and allows you to visit the hidden annex above the old spice warehouse. Many of the belongings of the families hiding in the annex were cleared when the house was raided originally and have been left this way at the request of the late Otto Frank, Anne’s father. Otto Frank was the sole survivor of the eight people hiding in the annex who ended up publishing an edited version of Anne Franks’s diary, which is now world-famous and known as ‘The Diary of a Young Girl.’
I found it interesting looking at the height markings on the walls of the annex showing how much the residents grew as they hid there for 2 years. It was quite sad to learn about the struggles of the daily lives and fates that the Frank family and their cohabitants, as well as many others, suffered during the Holocaust.
I decided to purchase a copy of Anne Franks’s diary at the house as I had been meaning to read this book for some time and thought it would be cool to have a copy of the famous book from the place where it was originally written. Later in the day, I spent a few hours reading around half of the 360-page book. I have concluded that this it is much easier to read the diary after visiting the house where it took place since while the language used in the diary is quite advanced for someone aged 16, the surrounding setting is not so clearly described.
Torture Museum
After visiting the Anne Frank Museum, we had some more pancakes and then visited the Torture Museum. This museum was something we stumbled across while exploring the city. It featured many exhibits of devises that had been used to torture and make people give up secrets across European history. It was a little small, but still interesting to see.
Shopping
After the torture museum, we spent a few hours walking around some shops. For lunch, we had some fries coated in cheese and truffle which was quite delicious. We looked in many cheese shops, souvenir shops, and the Lego store. I spent a while looking in a bookstore that was 4 floors tall, eventually purchasing 2 books; Chip Wars – focused on the future of microchip manufacturing, and Silence – a book about introverts.
