Caroline and I were determined to visit the Anne Frank House Museum, and only had to wait for about 25 minutes to get in.  

The story was generally familiar to us, Caroline had actually read the story in high school, which was better than I had done.  It never occurred to me that the Franks were Germans and Otto ran a jelly and preserve factory to make a living.  All the Franks were born in Germany and moved to Amsterdam to escape the war.  

The thing that really struck me was the fact that after hiding for years only Otto, the father survived.  And it was so close.  It was the antithesis of the Hollywood ending.  About a month before the end of the war Anne expired from typhus and deprivation.  The rest of the family and friends were either gassed or died of disease and abuse within months or a year of the end of the war.  

I think the thing that makes this story so incredibly powerful is the fact these people came to life through Anne's diary.  You got a sense of them as people, as parents or friends, and Anne as a child with very mature and inquisitive thoughts for her age.  

And then the lights go out, they are murdered for no reason that makes any sense.  That's what's so jarring.  And then you start to think of all the millions of other people, all with families and relationships, and the magnitude of the Holocaust takes your breath away all over again.

The Anne Frank story gives the Holocaust a face, and makes the magnitude jump out at you since the victims stop being just numbers and become real people.  I was very moved, again, since I'd been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.  

Caroline with the Anne Frank statue outside the Anne Frank House Museum.

After the Anne Frank House Museum we headed for something lighter, like the Maritime Marine Museum.  This is a museum dedicated to the history of the Dutch merchant marine and a little bit of the Dutch naval efforts.

We weren't really allowed to take pictures in the museum, so I shot a bunch of pictures of a terrific wooden ship called Amsterdam.  It's a recreation of a ship that sank off the coast of England, and is still there today.  The design was very common and thus it's a great example of the premier age of Dutch wooden ships used by the Dutch East Indies Company.

The ship is manned with people in costume that are very knowledgeable about the ship.  

This picture shows the typical spice items that were brought back from Asia and traded across Europe after moving through Amsterdam.  Also, the navigation tools were some of the very best available at that time.

Captain StudMuffin takes the wheel on the Amsterdam.  This ship was very technologically forward because it had a rope activated tiller that in a protected spot on the afterdeck.  Since the cockpit is low, you have to post a lookout.

This picture shows the rope activated tiller and one of the relatively spacious aft bunk beds.  In walking around this ship it struck me that it was the cleanest wooden ship I'd ever been on.  That's because it was built in 1989 and never carried cargo.  There is no tar in the construction, and the bilge never had a chance to collect all the nasty smelly things that give a wooden ship it's distinctive odor.  It was quite pleasant to walk the hold since it was so fresh.

The second picture shows another ship that is held by the museum.  This ship was used for catching herring in the river before Amsterdam closed it off and all the herring died off because all the water turned too fresh.  Later it was turned into an ocean going fishing vessel and saw service for almost 80 years before becoming a museum piece. 

Caroline is posing with the largest painting in the collection showing The Battle of Gibraltar in 1602 that was fought against Spain.   It was going to be another 41 years before the treaty would be signed and The Netherlands would be a country in it's own right.  But the painting is great.

Caroline and I left the Museum and headed for the Vincent van Gogh Museum.  Yes, we were going for a record, three museums in the same day. I think this is a personal best for Caroline.

We referred to it as the "Vinnie" museum, and it lived up to expectations.  Vinnie (we were getting a little silly with all the museum exposure) had painted a lot of canvases, and the museum took a lot of pains to show each period and the artists that he painted with and influenced.  It was quite comprehensive without being overly pedantic.

After we got done seeing all the impressionists, neo-impressionists (or pointilists depending on the authority you are listening to at the time), and some fauvists, we were shot.  It was time to do some cafe sitting and people watching.  We had been working really hard at being tourists, and it was grueling.  We needed a break.  

We had dinner at a nice Italian/Argentinean place and headed back to the hotel.  We had to catch a plane at 7:30 AM to get up to Stockholm.  So we were getting to bed early.