"Think of all the beauty still left around you, and be happy"- Anne Frank

We visited Anne Frank's house today. It was very moving and Maddie was very interested in every aspect of the history of Anne and her family. We walked through the office, where only 4 workers knew of the 8 people in hiding, then went to the secret annex and saw Anne's room, and her actual diary. We also saw the Academy Award won by Shirley MacLaine in 1959 for the movie of Diary of Anne Frank. She had promised Otto Frank, Anne's father that if she won she would give it to the museum. At the end of the tour we learned the fate of all those in hiding. Otto Frank was the only survivor, with Anne dying at Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp only 1 month before the Allied Forces arrived.

After the visit to Anne Frank's house we rode the canal buses for about 2 hours. They go throughout the town and you can see everything. Amsterdam is built around a series of concentric canals, and was one of the first ever planned cities. We learned that Amsterdam has about 1250 bridges and almost 2500 houseboats. The city is not allowing any more houseboats because there is not much room left. Some of the house boats are old and beat up, others look just like small, modern ranch houses, and others have very unique and elaborate outdoor areas on their decks including one with real grass on its roof.

On the canal tour we saw the headquarters of the Dutch West Indies Company, and also saw that most of the houses in Amsterdam are crooked. This is because they are very narrow and have hoisting arms on the front to lift furniture and other items into the house. The houses are built at an angle so that materials don't damage them while being hoisted. Most buildings are also not very tall because of the soft ground.

We walked all the way around Vondelpark, which is like Central Park for Amsterdam. We saw many dogs and people playing and lounging. There was alot of work being done to get the park ready for Spring, escpecially since the city has had more rain recently than usual.

There are so many different types of transportation here, it makes it difficult to even cross the street. There are cars, scooters, buses, trams, and we've never seen so many bikes. Bikes of every shape and size are everywhere. Most of them look old fashioned, but people ride them fast. We hear bells behind us warning us to move over constantly. Many people have bikes with large buckets on the front where they carry their kids or groceries.

Tomorrow we will go to the Rijkmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, and maybe even the zoo, one of the oldest in the world.