This past weekend, I visited the Netherlands for the first time. I did not know much about the country before I arrived, but I definitely learned a lot while I was there. The flight from Hamburg to Amsterdam was less than an hour. Then I took a train into Den Haag (The Hague) where I stayed for the weekend.
On Saturday, I started by visiting the Corrie Ten Boom Museum in Haarlem, which is about three-fourths the way from Den Haag to Amsterdam. Unfortunately, the English tour of the house was not given as scheduled, so I was only able to see the outside of the house. I also tried to go to the Frans Hals Museum, but it too was not open until later. I made the quick decision to get to Amsterdam rather than wait for all the places in Haarlem to open, which would have been another 1.5-2 hours. It just meant that I was able to spend more time in Amsterdam.The trains were very easy to use in the Netherlands. I felt they were more like subways than trains because they were so easy to get on and off. For the first time since I’ve been here, I had my ticket checked on the train. I’ve heard that there are major fines if you are caught riding the train/subway/bus without a ticket. As always, I had my train ticket ready.
I arrived in Amsterdam and was immediately swallowed in the crowds of people. Amsterdam is an especially dense city, especially since there is limited land on account of all the canals. Most of the people are attracted to the walking streets that are lined with trendy shops and cafes. I walked down one of the more popular shopping street Kalverstraat and looked into shops like H&M, Espirit, America Today, etc. If the dollar to euro exchange rate were better, I probably would have returned with many souvenirs, but I guess it’s better that I remember I have to stay on a student budget.
I walked to Museumplein where the “I AMsterdam” stands. The weather was beautiful during the day so I enjoyed a simple sandwich picnic on the grass in between the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. While I was in Holland, I learned that Van Gogh is properly pronounced “Van Gog-h” with a short “o” and hard “g” sound and not “Van Go.” This was something new to me because I didn’t really know whom people were talking about when they said “Van Gogh” when I first arrived.
Although I didn’t go to the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum, I was able to go to the Anne Frank Huis with only a short wait in line. I was very excited to see the annex that 13-year old Anne lived with seven other people. The annex turned out to be bigger than I expected, but I think this is also due to the fact that there was no furniture in the annex. Anne’s father Otto was the sole survivor of the eight Jewish people who were hiding in that annex. When he returned to the building, he found that the Nazis had taken all of the furniture. When Mr. Frank decided to open up the house, he wanted the rooms to remain empty.I was not allowed to take pictures throughout the house, but I think this helped me experience everything in the moment. I spent more time reading through the exhibits and studying the building. I tried to imagine myself as a 13-year-old girl having to live in a confined space for an undetermined amount of time with seven other people whom I may or may not get along with. I can definitely see why Anne would need a diary as an outlet for all her pent-up energy, thoughts, and emotions. One of the memorable things from the house was seeing the original wallpaper in the annex. The Franks marked the heights of Margot and Anne as they grew during the time of hiding from July 6, 1942 to August 4, 1944. The video interviews of Mr. Frank and family friends were also especially compelling.
On Sunday, I attended Trinity International Church, a sister church of IBC-Hamburg. Though the congregation was smaller due to summer holidays, I enjoyed meeting the church members. I even met some Californians and Hamburgers (haha). In the afternoon, my kind host family took me on a driving tour of The Hague. I saw the beautiful Peace Palace, which was constructed after the donation of Andrew Carnegie and houses the International Court of Justice. As the name suggests, the Peace Palace is the location for mostly peaceful international arguments such as border disputes. Criminal cases and the like are addressed in the International Criminal Court, which is seated elsewhere in The Hague.
In addition, we drove by the Paleis Noordeinde, which is the Queen’s official work-palace. Imagine having a separate working palace. I wonder how many different palaces she has. The building that houses her horses and carriages was very nice. If the building for her horses is this nice, I can only imagine what her residential palace looks like. The Dutch Parliament also meets in The Hague. It’s a little confusing, but while Amsterdam is the official capital of the Netherlands, The Hague is where all the government work actually gets done.
(Queen's Horse Stables)
To make the tour and the weekend complete, I got to see the beach resort Scheveningen. Don’t ask me to pronounce the word because I find it very difficult, but the beach was nice. I was surprised to see people still flocking to the shore because it seemed like a chilly day to me, but apparently it’s the height of the summer and the day was supposedly a great beach day. I think I’ll wait for a little bit warmer weather to go into the water. The main resort at Scheveningen is the Kurhaus, which has some rooms overlooking the beach. I don’t want to imagine what the rooms cost in euros let alone dollars. On Sunday evening, I made it safely back to Hamburg.
As always, it was a full weekend of traveling, but I enjoyed it. It’s hard for me to believe that Hamburg has more bridges than Amsterdam and Venice combined because I saw so many bridges in Amsterdam, but I’ll keep bragging about Hamburg while I’m here.
Thank you for your continued prayers for travel safety. Please pray that my research experiments would be more successful. I’ve hit some setbacks in my work that have been a bit discouraging and disappointing. I would appreciate your prayers that I keep making progress in my project… and fast progress too! I’m sorry I haven’t been keeping the blog up to date, but I would like to change that soon if anyone is still reading. Please send me a summer update when you can!
indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many. 2 Corinthians 1: 9-11
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