The Houses of Anne Frank & Corrie ten Boom

My mom and sister flew into Amsterdam on their way over from Texas, so I scheduled a bit of time to show them my favorite parts of Amsterdam. Namely, poffterjes, stroop waffels, and the Anne Frank House.

The Frank's house is an easy 15 minute walk from the main train station, along scenic canals. For some reason, when I read the book I didn't envision Anne living on a canal in such a tall, slim row house. I imagined the house in an old American city. And I never dreamed that the secret annex was so huge!

When J and I visited in May, the line wrapped around the building and took about 45 minutes. My mom, sister, and I only had about 4 hours in Amsterdam, so I bought our tickets online a few weeks in advance (they sell out quickly). There's a convenience fee of a few Euros, but it's worth it!

We don't have any pictures from the inside since photography is forbidden, but walking through the rooms brings the story alive. I especially loved seeing the walls where Anne carefully pasted images of her favorite movie stars to make the space cheerier--she was just a regular girl, in extraordinary circumstances.

Canals in Haarlem

When J and I visited the Netherlands in May, we also went to Haarlem (just a 15-20 minutes train ride west of Amsterdam) to visit Corrie ten Boom's house. This museum is such a different experience than Anne's house--free tours are offered as specific times and you can only see the house via a tour. When we visited, it was quite crowded and we barely got a spot on the tour even though it was 'low season'.

I loved Corrie's memoir, The Hiding Place, and the museum was a continuation of it. I didn't take many pictures since the tour was crowded, but you can find a virtual tour and good pictures here. The hiding place in her closet was quite small, so their guests stayed in the main part of the house most of the time--the opposite of the set up at the Frank's house. However, the hiding place was very cleverly disguised and it was never discovered by the Nazis.

The original plaque in the ten Boom house: "Jesus is Victor"

What I loved most about the museum, though, is that the house is not just a museum--it's the Ten Boom's living testimony. Never have I been on a tour where the guide asked the audience if everyone knew who Jesus is! He told the story of Corrie and her family's faith, how it gave them the courage to help and hide Jews in their community and to have strength through their arrest, imprisonment, and the concentration camps.

Both of these museums are not to be missed during a trip to Amsterdam. I loved not only visiting them, but getting to share Anne Frank's house with my mom and sister. More on the rest of our travels soon!

Word of the Week: Blumenzwiebeln

The German word of the week is Blumenzwiebeln. This translates to "flower onions" in English and it refers to flower bulbs. The literal nature of so many German words and the German's deep love for onions never fail to make me smile.

We ran across this word quite a lot during our trip to the Netherlands. We started our trip in Amsterdam, and made a quick stop at the Bloemenmarkt to see the floating bulb shops on the canal. It was mobbed, but I really enjoyed seeing the wide variety of bulbs, including some as big as my hand!

After Amsterdam, we rented a car and drove along The Flower Route. Driving along winding roads in the Dutch countryside and seeing the tulip fields spread out around you is absolutely magical.

We were good and didn't walk in the fields (there were signs everywhere), but it was amazing to stand at the edge of the fields with so many flowers rustling in the breeze.

Timing is everything, too. The flowers peak at a slightly different time each year. What makes the timing even trickier is that the farmers behead the tulips at their prime so that the bulbs get the nutrients. You can see this in the picture above. We felt that just leaving all those pretty flower heads in the dirt was quite a waste, but I guess that the sale of bulbs is lucrative enough that it isn't worth the extra effort. Anyway, all this goes to show that just a day or two can make a huge difference in what you see!

A few of my favorite things....

Our trip to the Netherlands was filled with many of my favorite things.

1. Breakfast.

it may look brown and lumpy, but it is quite tasty! [Flickr: multipel_bleiben]

The Dutch know how to do breakfast. Giant pancakes? Yep. Tiny pancakes? Of course. Syrup? Yes, please.

In particular, I loved the poffertjes, which are small puffed pancakes covered in butter and sugar, and served with fruit. They are cooked on special dimpled griddles, and I did my best to eat them at least twice a day!

poffertjes in the seaside village of Volendam