Anne Frank House

I visited the Anne Frank House later in the afternoon. I was so glad I prepurchased my ticket as the queue was around the corner with a wait of 1-2 hours. I was able to go straight in at my appointed time. The house is situated on a canal and from the front you could never tell that there is a two story annexe at the back of the building. The steps in Dutch buildings are vertically challenging - I could put my hands on a step six up from where my feet were! Oto frank's business was run from the front of the house and then a bookcase hid the secret steps into the annexe where 8 people including the four Franks hid from the Nazis for over 2 years. Several of Otto's workers assisted with food, etc. Anne's room which she shared with a gentleman is extremely small - the pictures of the Dutch and British Royal Family and her cinema stars are where she pasted them onto the wall. The story of the hiding and their capture and what happened to the family was very sobering but not in the end depressing. There was a sense of celebrating a young life that was snuffed out too soon but who lives on through her diary. Visiting the Anne Frank House is an Amsterdam must do.