Amsterdam – canals, tulips and windmills

April of 2024, I slid over to the Netherlands for a short six day respite. This was another trip I had been putting off for several years as I tackled all my longer, more expensive jaunts. Well, Amsterdam was everything I expected it to be and a little more. The tulips were “tuliping”, the windmills were “windmilling” and the weather was definitely “weathering”. The weekend I visited coincided with the Tulip Festival and the entire city was an explosion of color. The weather definitely left a lot to be desired but I didn’t let that slow me down. To learn about Amsterdam’s long and tumultuous history, feel free to read my encapsulated version here.

Day One:

I hopped off my flight, boarded a tram and headed to my hotel. Not one to waste a single travel moment, I dropped off my bags and immediately hit the streets of Amsterdam. My hotel was approximately twenty five minutes walking distance of Centraal Station (think the New York version of Penn Station) and iconic views of the canals. After taking in the views, I hopped a City Sightseeing bus to get my bearings and a proper overview of the city. By the time I returned to my hotel, it was time to sleep and get ready for the jam packed weekend.

Day Two:

The day started with a hearty breakfast at the highly rated Omelegg. In this unassuming establishment on the fringe of the Red Light District, I had one amazing breakfast. I don’t usually post food but their salmon deluxe platter was beyond…

Today was slated to be a pretty somber day as I would be visiting Anne Frank House. Many of us read the Diary of Anne Frank as teens but it is one thing to read about a place and quite another to visit the very place you read about. Visiting Anne Frank House gave life to a story that has lived in my head for decades.

Annelies Marie “Anne” Frank was born in Germany on June 12, 1929. A member of the Jewish faith, Anne is known internationally for keeping a diary documenting her life hiding from Nazi persecution during the German occupation of the Netherlands.

From Germany to Amsterdam

In 1934, unemployment was high, poverty was rampant and Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party ruled Germany. Hitler hated the Jews and took full advantage of the rampant antisemitism of the nation. Faced with these challenges, Anne’s parents Otto and Edith Frank relocated to Amsterdam believing they would be safe there from Hitler’s pogrom.

For a while, life was good. Otto had founded a successful company that traded in pectin, the jelling agent used to make jam. Anne learned the language, attended school and had a full social calendar. By 1939, things began to change when Hitler invaded Poland starting World War II.

Their World Collapses

Hitler and his forces invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940 and the Dutch army surrendered five days later. Slowly but surely, the Nazis introduced more and more laws and regulations that made the lives of Jews more difficult. All Jews were ordered to wear a Star of David on their clothing. Jews could no longer visit parks, cinemas, or non-Jewish establishments. Otto lost his company because Jews were no longer allowed to run their own businesses. All Jewish children were forced to go to separate Jewish schools.

Even more insidious, the Nazis had begun sending Jews notices to report to “labor camps”. Unbeknownst to those who complied, these were the first concentration camps. Anne’s sister Margot received a notice to report to one such camp on July 5, 1942. The very next day, the family went into hiding.

The Secret Annex

Fortunately, in the spring of 1942, Anne’s father had started furnishing a hiding place in the annex of his business premises at Prinsengracht 263. With help from his former colleagues, the family and four other acquaintances lived in what has been called the “Secret Annex” for just over two years.

The hiding place was raided on August 4, 1944 and all the inhabitants taken to concentration camps. Just before the Nazis emptied the contents of the Annex, two helpers found Anne’s diary and hid it.

Otto Frank would be the only member of the Secret Annex to survive. He was liberated from Auschwitz by the Russians and during his journey back to the Netherlands learned that his wife Edith had died. On June 3, 1945, ten months after his arrest, he returned to Amsterdam. To his great relief, he found that the helpers had all survived. He remained hopeful that his daughters would be returning soon. However, it was not meant to be. Shortly after his return, he received word that they had both succumbed to typhus in February of 1945 at Bergen Belsen concentration camp.

One Bright Light

While he had lost his entire family, the life of his youngest child, Anne, had been preserved in the pages of the diary his colleagues had found. Reading that Anne had aspired to become a writer intending to publish her stories about life in the Annex, Otto fulfilled Anne’s wish. In June 1947, 3,000 copies of Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex) were printed. The book was later translated into 70 languages and adapted for stage and screen and in 1960 the hiding place became a museum.

The Moco Museum

After such a heavy day, I needed time to digest all I had learned and seen and felt a trip to the Moco Museum was in order. This small gem of a museum featured works from Jean Michel Basquiat, his friend Andy Warhol, and Robbie Williams to name a few. I found Robbie Williams pieces addressing his mental illness provided just the levity I needed to close out the day.

Day Three:

It was time to tiptoe through the tulips, literally. I took the 40 minute bus ride out to Keukenhof Gardens. Keukenhof is also called  the Garden of Europe and is one of the world’s largest flower gardens. The official garden website boasts that the park spans 79 acres and annually plants approximately 7 million flower bulbs. Considering how many varieties of tulips alone they had, I’d say that number is plausible. I took so many photos of flowers that I ended up selecting the best shots and creating a slideshow with them.

After spending a few hours being amazed by just how many varieties of tulips are cultivated here, I boarded a bus headed for Haarlem. It just so happened that this was the weekend of the Flower Parade. The Flower Parade, also called Bloemencorso Bollenstreek, travels 40 kilometers from Noordwijk to Haarlem and consists of 14 floats made of flowers. There is also a marching band and the route is traversed by more than 30 luxury cars decorated with floral arrangements. It was truly amazing how they were able to fashion a toucan and harlequin masks out of millions of flowers.

Bloemencorso is the only flower parade where the floats are created using spring flowers such as tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths.

Day Four:

I visited the Zaandam region of the Netherlands to check out the iconic windmills of Zaanse Schans. While it is an extremely touristy place, it was great to step inside a fully functioning windmill. The ones here and the wooden houses that accompany them were relocated from the region north of Amsterdam for preservation. Only two of the windmills were preserved at the original site where they were first constructed.

Also, on the site are a clog workshop, the Catharina Hoeve Cheese Farm and various craft shops. The clog workshop was quite interesting as I got to see a craftsman making a pair.

Day Five:

On my penultimate day in Amsterdam, I got to visit the Rijksmuseum. One of the most famous museums in the world housing works by Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Vermeer and Jan Steen just to name a few. The queues to enter the museum were unbelievable but once inside it was easy to wander from room to room taking in all the artifacts and artwork.

Day Five:

On my final full day in Mokum, I decided to relax and just stroll along the canals. Realizing I had never viewed the canals after dark, I ventured out around dusk (10:00 PM) to see what Amsterdam looked like at night. The canals, especially Prisengracht, looked magical with the warm yellow lighting rimming the bridges.

And just like that my Amsterdam holiday was brought to a close.

Coming Soon: Peru

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