We had booked tickets to the Anne Frank house and it was another 45 minute walk to get there so we left with enough time to get breakfast on the way. Booking the Anne Frank house was an ordeal. It comes available a week at a time and by the time we knew this it had already been booked up. Kerry checked the website daily for weeks hoping that tickets would free up. They had freed up for the day before when we couldn't go but eventually they came up for 9:30a on our full day. We found a nice breakfast place on the way with food I pronounced very badly. Too many syllables.
The Anne Frank house was obviously very moving. I hadn't realized they had actually been captured after D-Day and died just before the various camps were liberated. I also didn't realize how much space they had. I had expected just a tiny room but there were a few floors with multiple rooms. Still not much for 8 people. The tour was well paced with personal speakers you held up to your ear. I've never been to a museum where I read every single placard. They finished the museum off with a warning about how the Nazi's came to be in the first place that was too similar to today's politics.
Kerry had wanted to do a canal cruise and there just happened to be one right outside the Anne Frank house. At first we tried to figure out how to download the app and buy tickets but they came up to us and said we just had to get on and they would take care of everything. Five minutes later and we were on our way. The tour was narrated automatically in languages based on who was on board and was about 75 minutes. We went through some smaller canals and then into some of the larger ones. The family may have napped for a portion of the journey. As Callie indicated we had an $18 Euro nap.
After our expensive nap we checked off the Amsterdam McDonalds. We were going to get hash browns in the morning but apparently they don't have them here and we settled for a drink instead. We were back now for some chicken nuggets since Carter felt the drink didn't count. We were headed out to meet my long lost Uncle Andre and were going to take the train but we couldn't quite figure out how to pay so we decided we would walk instead. The first part of the trip was interesting but the second part was more modern with more cars.
I won't provide too many details on my long lost uncle in this post but it involves a Canadian man, a Dutch woman, an interaction during the second world war and then we pick the story up again with a "23 and Me" test in 2022. I'll dedicate an entire post to the story as I attempt to piece together the details. We met him and his wife at a café along with my Aunt and Uncle and my cousin Jesse's family. Lunch was excellent and my new found Uncle and his wife were great people. They might come to Canada for a visit next spring where hopefully I'll be able to piece together more of the story.
Our hotel was actually closer to the café then the trip we did to get there so we walked back again. n time we got a better look at the windmill that's near our hotel. I'm not entirely sure what it's story is but it's a very large authentic looking windmill. I know they used to be used to move water around but that's been replaced by electric pumps so I think it's more of a historic site now. We got back to our hotel and Kerry did another load of laundry to get us through to the end of our trip. Washing was good but drying not so much. Clothes everywhere around our room drying.
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