One of my strongest memories of my childhood is reading Life Magazine’s article about Anne Frank.  I became obsessed with the Holocaust, as many Junior High School Jewish girls do.  I read, and still read, any book I hear about on the subject.  Today, finally, I got to visit the Secret Annex of the Frank family.  To be where so much of her diary took place was a sobering and somber tour.  I am pleased Alan and I could share this.  No pictures are allowed inside so there is just this picture of the outside of Otto Frank’s business.  The annex was built on the upper floors in the back of the building and hidden behind a movable bookcase.  Seeing this just brings more meaning to the phase “Never Again.”

Anne Frank House, it’s the larger building.

On a lighter note, we also walked around the neighborhood where the Anne Frank House is located.  The Dutch architecture was very interesting.  Here are some examples:

There are canals everywhere you turn in Amsterdam.  It’s really lovely.

Pink Triangle Memorial for the Homosexuals killed in the Holocaust

For dinner, we once again just crossed our street, this time to the Portuguese Restaurant.  I had rice with seafood and Alan had lamb and potatoes.  GrapeHops Portugal tour mates, please note, we still cannot eat any more salt cod.  We had a delicious banana pie for dessert.  The waiter speaks six languages!  He said that in order to qualify for high honors when graduating high school, you had to pass a tough exam in four languages, Dutch, English, French, and German.  He has also learned Spanish and Portuguese, and understands but doesn’t speak Italian.  Amazing!

Tomorrow we go to the Van Gogh museum and then to have a rijsttafel for dinner.  More then.