Anne Frank House

After saying good bye to my parents it was still pretty early to wander around Amsterdam so I decided to see if I could go to Anne Frank house. There is usually a line down the block- but the Monday and snowy conditions had me in line with only about 5 people.

I had been once before when I was 10 years old and I was starting to worry I was running out of time for this trip.

Anne Frank house is the old office building of her father where they made a secret apartment on 263 Prinsengracht- it still stands and you can walk through all the old spaces including through the bookcase door, her bedroom, family quarters, kitchen- ironically the only space we could not go in was the attic which is the only space she had to look at the sky and feel fresh air for 2 years.

This time I was more taken with how dark it was in their space and the thought that they really never saw the sun for all that time. It is as you can imagine, really cramped. They also don't really address the fact that Anne shared a tiny room with an adult man (friend of her father) for her time in hiding.

Anne Frank had hoped to be a journalist, or famous writer when she grew up.