Sunday 14 - Thursday 18 of May, 2006
Exploring Amsterdam
Our second day in Amsterdam, we took care of a number of tasks and explored more of the city.
Anne Frank
It's hard to be in Amsterdam and not be aware of Anne Frank.
We had been to the Anne Frank House on our way to Israel on our honeymoon for the first year of rabbinic school in Jerusalem. We managed to visit the Amsterdam Historical Museum for the exhibit of Anne Frank letters shortly before closing time. We learned a good deal of the context of her life in Holland, read testimonials by some of her friends, and saw texts of actual letters to and from Anne. It is incredibly sad to be reminded that she died not long before the end of the war, and moreover, that she had family in Switzerland; too bad the Franks did not escape there.
Lag b'Omer
We took the very long way to the Van Gogh Museum on Tuesday:
- We dropped off three more English books,
- We went by the post office to mail a couple of items. Jay should receive a package with items for the kids (purchased in Prague),
- We navigated our way to the Canal Boat Museum,
- We stopped in at a Delft shop… and bought nothing.
- We stopped in at an Indian import clothing shop which had some nicer items than we'd seen before.
- We learned what someone who has too many candle sticks does with them
[hint?]
- We lunched at the Pancake Bakery (like crêpes but really large… Debbie's was like a pizza on a crêpe pancake, Mark's, called Egyptian, had orange slices, honey, almonds and whipped cream!
- We took a tram out to an area known for Moroccan barbers for Mark's Lag B'Omer beard trim. We had been given vague instructions on how to get there, got off the tram a bit early and walked through the Moroccan neighborhood finding wonderful sights along the way
a mountain of spices!
- When we found a ("the"?) barber we had to wait. The sign out front indicated they had Internet access (yet another good place for a WiFi business) but it hadn't been working for some time. We used the electricity and worked on The Site. Abdel gave Mark a very close shave.
- Trying to get to a tram that would take us to the Van Gogh Museum, we got off one stop too late and ended up walking through the Red Light District. Mark claims to have been lost.
- We happened into the Puccini Bomboni chocolate kitchen and store. They use Valrhona French chocolate, an Italian store name, and are located only in Amsterdam. They sell very beautiful and large chocolates with interesting shapes and designs, including rhubarb, lemon grass flavors.
- We returned to our Café at the Rembrandt Corner, to check our email and upload as many pages as we were able to finish of the Web site.
It was then we learned from email that Elizabeth's caesarian would be the following morning.
- We knew that we were close to the Museum of the Dutch Resistance to the Nazis and a memorial at the deportation site of Amsterdam Jewry so we checked them out only to learn that they had closed for the day.
Another memorial nearby, though, was a monument to the Jewish resistance.
Along the two sides are inscriptions with the text of Jeremiah 8:23 (in Hebrew and in Dutch):
Oh, that my head were water,
My eyes a fount of tears!
Then would I weep day and night
For the slain of my people.
We did not get to the Van Gogh Museum.
- We headed back to the van for our last night before returning it to the rental company. We had been thinking about how to formalize the end of our time in the van through rituals and so, we were taken with:
Someone had found a way to commercialize the concept! Their upscale products are not available in the States yet because of more stringent content labeling laws here.
Ritually Yours
Back at the van we lit our chocolate incense and candle. We ate our dinner on a white tablecloth (a little towel from Rituals.com), enjoyed a chocolate dessert of chocolate covered waffle/donut (similar to the one we enjoyed in Vienna) plus a rhubarb chocolate from Puccini. We reminisced about the top 3-5 experiences/insights we each wanted to take home with us.
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