After the family reunion, my sister and her family and Joe and I went to Amsterdam for 3 days together and stayed right downtown. We had a blast. In Amsterdam we took the canal tour, visited the Anne Frank House, walked thru the red light district, and did a walking tour of the Jordaan neighborhood. Chiara needed a break one day so Mary and Tom stayed in the city with her while Joe and I took Sam to Haarlem for the day to go on the tour of the Corrie Ten Boom house. This was one spot Sam really wanted to see as he has had to watch her movie (nearly ten hours) 3x for school and/or scout projects as well as read her book several times etc. We figured he has devoted well over 30 hours of his life to Corrie Ten Boom so it was worth a visit to her house. She is a Dutch Christian Holocaust survivor who helped many Jews escape the Nazi's during World War II. The Anne Frank House was interesting as it gave you a quick glimpse into WWII from the perspective of a teenagers eyes. The Red Light District was not at all what Susan expected and she was quite disappointed. Susan was expecting it to be similar to that of the red light districts in Bangkok but she thought the one in Amsterdam was pretty tame. You always hear of the nearly naked women in the windows, all the sex shops and prostitutes everywhere. You almost kind of had to go looking for them - which we weren't that interested in it so we didn't look too hard. In Bangkok, they are very aggressive and approach you in the streets offering their services - they don't stand in a window off a beaten path. They are all out in the open and hound you. We did see some sex shops and we saw two God awful ugly women in a window down a side allow dressed in some skimpy lingerie. You could smell pot everywhere though - all the coffee shops sell it and some even post their menu/prices on the door/window for you to see on the streets.
Anyhow, here are a few pictures from our time in Amsterdam and Haarlem:
Pic 1: Anne Frank House...
Pic 2: All the bicycles parked at the train station.
Pic 3: It's hard to see but the sign reads, "Homomonument!"
Pic 4: Sam hiding in the "Hiding Place" in the Corrie Ten Boom House.
Pic 5: Aunt Suzy and Sam sitting and waiting for the train in Haarlem to take us back to Amsterdam.
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