So we got a bit of a late start yesterday– sleeping in super late and re-grouping just in time to finally head out for the day at 15:00 (3pm, c’mon people). We decided to try the Stop/Go bus since its route goes by the Anne Frank house and our unlimited public transport pass hadn’t expired yet. We took the usual #5 tram into the Amsterdam Centraal Station, and finally got around to snagging this quintessential Dutch parking garage…
Yes, those are rows and rows of bicycles…
The prevalence of bikes here is amazing, but that’s definitely another post.
From here, there was some “discussion” as to where to catch the Stop/Go. One of us (you guess who) thought we should go stand by where all the other buses were to wait while the other one thought we should walk the route and flag it down. We ended up doing the latter while multitasking brunner (breakfast at 1630 ;-)) since we hadn’t eaten yet. Of course, we quickly got lost, completely leaving the bus route. We wandered around the side streets and quiet canals before finally settling on a place to get some grub. Of course, after we’d ordered and found a place to sit in the sun, we discovered they were closing in less than 15 minutes. Hope we didn’t get any special spit sauce in the food. 😉
We then set-off to get un-lost and find Anne Frank’s house. We found we were definitely not on the tourist maps anymore but found this spot…
From there, we kind of just backtracked along empty streets parallel to the crowded ones and eventually ran into the right street. We walked along the Prinsengracht canal dodging bikes, cars, and cafes and saw some cool houseboats. We also laughed as two Stop/Go buses passed us a couple blocks away from our destination. Good times.
Now we have been debating everyday whether or not to make reservations for some of these tourist attractions. I remember hearing that the Anne Frank house was a reservation recommendation, but we decided to chance it anyway. Of course, when we arrived, we were greeted with this…
Yeeeeaaaaah… so we decided that after walking for an hour looking for the place, we didn’t feel like waiting in line for just as long to be depressed. Instead, we chilled on the other side of the canal and thought about the book and contemplated her life and the hardships of her family. Of course, the house obviously looks different from her time because, really, how effective would the hiding be if you had to walk up that glass-windowed spiral staircase?? [why yes, yes, we are sick and wrong…]