Amsterdam freebie

On Sunday I went on a free (yes FREE) 2 day mini-cruise to Amsterdam courtesy of my nice and generous bank.  Amsterdam was cool, but I dont think cruising is for me.  I get bored way to easily to spend so long on a boat.  I went with my Mum because we are celebrating the cancer-free end of her 5 years of cancer treatment and we thought it would be nice to do something a bit different.

In Amsterdam we went to Anne Frank's house which was really thought provoking.  While its really important to understand the scale of the Holocaust in order to appreciate how terrible it was, for me all those numbers and facts tend to obscure the individuality and value of every single life which was lost.  Anne's diary and the opportunity to see the house she was hiding in magnifies the horror of the Holocaust far more than any fact ever could for me.  It hasnt really been changed since the Frank family lived there, you can still see the pictures Anne put up on her walls and the marks drawn on the wall to show how much the children had grown while they were there.  It brought tears to my eyes.

We also went to the floating flower market - which is in the picture, did our own walking tour round the central area of the city and had the most beautiful hot waffles covered in melted chocolate.  It was a good day.  Didnt get a chance to go to any of the art museums though - if Im ever in Amsterdam again I will definitely go and take a look at them.

But now its back to England, work and reality. Spring is in the air though and Im picking up the van on Saturday so its not all bad!