Our day trip to the Dutch country side was good fun. We took a coach out to the towns of Marken and Volendam and walked around and took in the sights. The towns are tiny and only seem to exist to please the tourists that pass through each day and every where you stop for a talk or an explanation by the cheesemaker, fisherman or clog maker they are ready for you with a gift shop!
We met some other Aussies on the trip so we shared our experiences of Amsterdam so far, which were fairly similar. We had all done the same trips and walks and been enjoying every minute of it.
The trip to Anne Frank Haus was sobering, as you walk through the house and discover the history of what happened there not very long ago. The hiding place of the Franks was surprising big but very basic. The pictures that Anne put in the wall to brighten her bedroom are still there as she wasn't allowed to even look out the window much. I knew the story but I wasn't aware of all the detail and watching the recording of the interview with Otto Frank (the father) about how he found out that his wife and daughters had all perished in the Nazi Concentration camps was moving.
Onto our trip Rotterdam was amusing. We got on the train, which took about an hour and arrived in Rotterdam in the pouring rain (a common theme of our trip so far). The Tourist Information Office is brand new and ultra modern, a shame this can't be said for the rest of the city. It's like it can't decide whether to be old or modern. For a city that was heavily bombed and nearly wiped of the map in World War II there are a lot of new buildings but nothing really for tourists. We spent a few hours walking around one of the biggest shipping ports in the world, took in the shopping (which was very good - heaps of shops) before heading back to Amsterdam.
We have been taking in some of the 'local delights' that Amsterdam has to offer too. By this I of course mean the beer and hot chips with mayonnaise! What did you think I meant!
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