Sun! I saw sun! Real sun!!

Other than being woken up at 8:30 this morning by obnoxious jackhammering RIGHT outside my window, and I am not exaggerating about the right outside my window part, (I am SO writing a harshly worded letter to hotels.com... seriously, don't they know I'm on vacation??), Day One in Amsterdam was a success. My vague plan was to see the Anne Frank House. And that was the plan in its entirety.

I grabbed a map from the hotel (check me out, I actually took a map this time!) and started walking. The first thing I noticed about the city, other than the obvious canals everwhere (Amsterdam is nicknamed "The Venice of the North"), was the incredible number of bicycles. I noticed it yesterday too, when looking out the windows of the train while arriving. Even when we were still out in the countryside surrounding Amsterdam, I started noticing people on them everywhere. Everywhere you go, there are people riding bikes and hundreds of them parked all over the place. As you're walking along the sidewalk, in most places at least half the pavement is dedicated to bike riders. You have to keep an eye out for them as much as for cars when you're crossing a street. I nearly got flattened several times.

I spent seven hours walking, wandering from neighborhood to neighborhood, checking out the canals, the architecture, the flower market, the coffee shops... it was a lovely, leisurely day. Made all the more glorious by the constant sunshine. Aaaaah. Granted it was still rather cool and I was the only person wearing short sleeves, but I was so happy to see sun again that I just couldn't help myself! I spent lots of time basking in its glory.

An odd thing to see as an American is the abundance of cannabis here. The sale of the plants of it in the flower market, being behind someone in line at a shop who was buying it, seeing a distinguished older woman sitting outdoors at a cafe and smoking it freely, walking into a coffee shop and having the smell overwhelm you. Turns out coffee shops are where you can go to order it as easily and casually as you do a cup of coffee. Pretty wild.

Also wild was the infamous Red Light District. I debated it but, in the end, just had to go see it. It was a lot smaller than I thought and, ironically, set just a block away from a beautiful old church. At one point I had the feeling that I was being followed. Sure enough, I was soon propositioned by a skeevy old geezer. It was time to move on...

... to the Anne Frank House. I have to confess up front that fairly recently I tried to read the book but only got about halfway through before putting it down. I knew it was a heartbreaking story but, frankly, I just couldn't get into it. But being there in person, walking through the house and imagining her in those same spaces, pacing those tiny rooms and walking up and down those steep stairs, trying to remain upbeat despite her circumstances, seeing the pictures she cut out and posted to the walls to help make it feel more "cheery", not being able to go outside or breathe fresh air for 2 years, was very moving. They had quotes from her diary posted all through the house and when I got to her room and read "I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young and know that I'm free", I just stood there and cried. It makes me teary-eyed just to write it. I've read and watched and studied a lot of things about the holocaust but that was one of the first times that I've really FELT, even a small bit, the injustice that was done and the cruelty that one human can inflict on another. I'm going to finish the book when I get home.

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Yet another long, leisurely stroll back to the hotel, taking in the scenery and enjoying a coffee at an outdoor cafe along the way. Vacation is hard.