Amsterdam, Holland

Amsterdam, in my opinion, is a small and very quiet city, plus a beautiful place to go. I have only one suggestion, when you get to Amsterdam (if you go there)… rent a bike!

Five days ago, our plane landed in Amsterdam, Holland. We checked into the hotel and went up to the room, where on a brochure we found out that our hotel in the 17th century, was 25 merchants' homes, which were restored and made into a hotel.

The next morning, we went over to the Ann Frank house. The whole thing, as I thought of it, was sad and gloomy and seemed to just want to show us how ugly the Holocaust was. It was very interesting though and I suggest this as well, if you go to Amsterdam. We actually got to see the hidden doorway and walk through the house that Anne Frank and her family hid in for 25 months (2yrs. 1mth). It was my favorite of all the museums that we went to. Here is a very small history of what happened to the Frank family;after about 2 years the Frank family was caught by the Nazis and were taken to concentration camps. Anne, Margot and Anne's mother were placed in Bergen bulsin and Otto Frank in Auschwitz. Anne's mother and sister died first. Then Anne began to think that she did not have any family left so she did not have the will to go on any longer. A month after Ann died, they were liberated and Otto Frank survived, but his entire family was gone. I ask those of you reading to just take a moment and think of the time you fought with your friends or your parents and then think of the good times you've had. Please give your friend a compliment today and hope that you and your friend live on until you are both old. Do this knowing that you have the ability to do so, even though Anne Frank couldn't have had a chance to say goodbye or even hello to her friends for two and a half years and she died after that period of time.

After the Ann frank museum, we went to the hop on hop off canal tour around town. This type of hop on hop off was not a bus, but a canal boat and it was awesome! The guide on the boat told us that there are 1050 bridges and 60 miles worth of canals. We rode the canals for a while and we stopped at a spot near the Van Gogh museum. We went in and held our breaths, as we beheld beautiful, dark and light paintings by Van Gogh. Van Gogh, in his early years as an artist, got into a fight with another artist named Gauguin. Van Gogh threatened Gauguin with a razor because Gauguin had painted Van Gogh in an unflattering manner. Gauguin ran away and Van Gogh cut a part of his own ear off because he was so upset. He was then sent to an insane Asylum where he would remain for many years. Van Gogh was an artist for ten years until in, 1890, at the age of 37, during a personal depression, he walked out into a field and shot himself in the chest. He died in his brother's arms two days later.It's too bad that back then they didn't have anti-depressants that may have saved Van Gogh's life.

After the museum we went to the local hard rock café and had ourselves a burger for dinner.

Day three, and we went to the Nemo museum. The Nemo museum was like a completely kid friendly science museum. In the museum there were different sections on each floor. For example nearest to the top there was a "lets talk about sex" section and at the bottom there were things like, putting a ball through a machine and watch it fly through tubes. Next we headed to the ferry where we would ride to "skate park Amsterdam".We took the fairy over, looked at a map and found skate park Amsterdam. The woman who would open it was 10 minutes late, but she got there and we skated for 2 hours. It was so much fun, because I hadn't skated in so long! Plus, there was a bar and a shop where we rented boards. Check out our photos or go to http://www.skateparkamsterdam.com to see details and find info on the park. That night after dinner we settled in at 10:00 when it still wasn't even dark and watched "24" (it does not get dark in Amsterdam until 10:30 during the summer).

The next day, we had breakfast and went downstairs to get our rental bikes. We unchained the bikes and drove to the museum Rijkes. At the Rijkes museum we saw famous paintings such as "Night Watch" and other spectacular works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, and LeTrec

Then we went to the museum of Amsterdam. At the museum of Amsterdam, I made note of three facts of which I would like to mention…

The museum of Amsterdam used to be an orphanage but it was changed into a museum. The 1924 Olympics were held in Amsterdam where Coca-Cola was introduced to Holland and sponsored the Olympics.Plus, women were allowed to compete and it was the first time they used the torch to light the Olympic flame.Also, there are 500,000 bikes in Amsterdam being used, which also leads to a lot of theft. Let me just end this by saying that prostitution and marijuana are legal in Amsterdam. That was it for the day and the next day (Katy) we took a train to Paris, France.

RS