Brussels, Brugge and Amsterdam

 

A few weeks ago, I met up with my friend Amanda from Chicago along with her mother and grandmother in Belgium. They were kind enough to let me join them for a few days of their Eurotrip and it was good to see some familiar faces. My housemate even remarked that my accent had gotten stronger after spending 3 days with Chicagoans!

I left my place at 5am, hopped a train to London, transferred to the Eurostar for a 2 hour train ride over land and under the sea to Brusssels to meet them arriving from Paris. It was my first time in the Chunnel and I barely even noticed we were underground. The train moved so fast your ears pop and then before you know it you're back in the daylight and you're in France.

  We wasted no time and were on a city tour of Brussels and saw a chocolate making demonstration that afternoon. That night we had an amazing meal, enjoyed some mussles in Brussels (ok, I just tried 2), drank some Belgian beers and bought lots of Belgian chocolates.

 

The next day we were off early to take a train to Amsterdam for the day. We took the hop on, hop off canal boat, which was a bust, because we got on the wrong line and had to wait around for a long time to get to where we wanted. We saw most of Amsterdam by boat, nonetheless.

Amanda and I headed along the canaled streets to the Anne Frank House & Museum for the afternoon. Being a rainy Wednesday in October we were happy the line wasn't too long as I'd heard some stories about waiting for multiple hours to get in the house.  I have always wanted to see Anne's home and with only a few hours on my first trip to Amsterdam, I was happy we were able to squeeze this in!

I've read Anne Frank's Diary at least twice but it's been years... it all came back to me rather quickly. The house is empty of furniture, the Nazis took all of the belongings.  Otto, Anne's father and the sole survivor, wanted it to stay empty, although at one point they did re-create the furnishings with Otto's detailed descriptions and direction. So they now have models and photographs of the secret annex furnished just the way it was when they were living there that you can look at while making your way through the empty rooms.



After navigating through the front of the building where Otto Frank's business had been run, you can climb a ladder like staircase and then it's there. The bookcase concealed entrance to the secret annex. They've posted this quote on the wall next to it:

Now our Secret Annex has truly become secret.  Mr. Kugler thought it would be better to have a bookcase built in front of the entrance to our hiding place.  Now whenever we want to go downstairs we have to duck and then jump.

Anne Frank, August 21, 1942

It was reading that quote that gave me the chills... Reading those words and seeing the threshold to the annex, I was rather overwhelmed comprehending how she had to duck and jump out of the annex, through the door in front of me. I ducked and climbed up through the narrow entrance. The step behind the bookcase is about a foot and a half up, and the opening no more than 5 ft high. Knowing she had passed through this, and seeing her words describe it, was my first taste of that diary coming to life.

The Secret Annex

Inside, you walk into the empty living area with kitchen with a sink and small stove. This is where they congregated and passed most of their days and the Van Pels slept at night. On the walls, the original wallpaper throughout the house had to be redone in the same print due to deterioration, but they have preserved the original in some places. You can see the pencil markings measuring Anne and Margot's height on the wall and the map of Normandy where Otto tracked the movement of the alliance. In Anne's room, they've preserved the majority of the walls behind glass where Anne had posted some postcards to liven the dreary space.

Our little room looked very bare at first with nothing on the walls, but thanks to Daddy who had brought my film-star collection and picture postcards on beforehand, and with the aid of a paste pot and brush, I have transformed the walls into on gigantic picture.  This makes it look much more cheerful.

Ann Frank, July 11, 1942

Overall, it was amazing to see this place. I wished I could have been there without the crowds, but ultimately, the more people that see these historical locations and remember what happened to so many innocent lives, the better.

After Anne Frank's house we took off to the center of the city and did some souvenir shopping and ended the day with a walk back towards the train station through the Red Light district area... yup, everything you've heard is true.

The final day, we took a tour to Ghent and Brugge north of Brussels. Ghent is a sleepy yet quaint town, and Brugge has beautiful canals, lots of horse drawn carriages and a large square that was made much more lively with the hundreds of British Birmingham football fans having a rowdy rally in preparation for the Brugge vs. Birmingham football game that night.

 

We took a boat tour on the canal and saw the rest of the city with a very entertaining boat driver. I'll have to check out the movie "In Brugge", with all the places they filmed pointed out to us throughout the day...

It was a whirlwind 3 days but I was so happy to see a friend from home and go to 3 places I've never been. A few checks off my bucket list!