Museum Musings

I woke up on my own at 7:00 a.m. this morning. This was quite the feat, because I had only gotten to bed around 1:30, after having read the news that the Librarian and Archivist of Canada suddenly resigned his position yesterday afternoon, apparently over allegations of improper spending.

I got up and got ready to face the day. My main goal this morning was to make it to the Anne Frank museum, which is located in the house the Frank family hid in during the Second World War. It is notoriously difficult to visit, because there are always long, long line-ups of people who want to get in, so my plan was to get there early. I arrived at the museum at 8:00, and realized that it only opened at 9:00. But it worked out well, because I ended up being the first in line. And that line ended up being extremely long by the time we were allowed to enter the museum.

I have to say that the museum was a lot harder to visit than I had imagined. We got to see the authentic bookcase that was used as a door to the secret annex where the Frank family hid from the Nazis all those years ago. There were original artifacts, photographs and film footage that made the whole horrible story so real. I felt kind of numb, on the verge of tears the entire time I was in the house. Before going in, I jokingly thought I would put on my Facebook page that I had visited the Anne Frank house, and somehow managed to avoid getting Bieber fever (an allusion to a terrible comment Justin Bieber made only a few weeks ago, that if Anne Frank were still living, she would be a Belieber, which was in exceedingly poor taste). But even making that comment on Facebook after having visited the museum seemed so wrong. It took a couple of hours for me to regain some perspective. As I signed the guest book, I noticed that the couple who had signed immediately before me were from Moncton, New Brunswick.

As I was scheduled to take my antibiotic at 10:30 a.m., and I cannot have any food in my stomach two hours before or after taking it, I was still fasting as I made my way to the Rijksmuseum, the Dutch State Museum. I got to see and photograph some very famous paintings by Dutch masters: Vermeer's Milkmaid, Rembrandt's Jewish Bride, and his Night Watch Room, and a self-portrait by Van Gogh. By 1:40 p.m., I was losing steam, partly because I had not slept long last night, but especially because I had not eaten yet. So I exited the museum and got a lemon muffin for starters. From there, I made my way to a small diner, where I sampled 8 different Dutch fried foods, eaten either with mustard or with sweet and sour sauce. These included fried cheese fingers, deep-fried meatballs, fried minced meat snacks, spicy spring rolls, cheese snacks, crispy chicken bites, springrolls filled with duck, and finally, bitterballen, the one I had identified at home as something I wanted to try. I think it was the first time on my trip that I tasted a new food that I did not care for. The bitterballen had a deep fried crunch to it, but then you bite into a paste of nondescript meat. Not to my liking. I washed everything down with a no-alcohol Bavaria beer. There was a bit of a hassle paying my bill because the diner does not accept credit cards and I only had 5 euros on me. So, I had to leave my driver's license with them in order to go get some cash from the debit machine. In the end, everything worked out fine, and I now have euros in my wallet.

My next stop was at a record shop, on my way to the north end of the city. And I was pretty pleased to find and buy the Eurovision double-CD, a great souvenir of my trip to Malmo. From there, I kept north, hoping to find the spot from where my tour of Holland leaves tomorrow morning. I finally found it, but it is a fair distance from my apartment, probably a 40 minute walk. If I need to be here tomorrow morning by 8:30 a.m. for our 9 o'clock departure, I will need to find a way to get there quickly. The lady at the desk suggested I take the tram, which will still take about 20 minutes. I stopped off at a little cafe where I got a delicious appletartje, a sort of apple and raisin square, which was amazing. The cashier there was able to direct me to this Internet cafe, where I have finally updated my blog. It is now 5:30 p.m., and I am about to decide what to do next. I hope to make it an early night, because I want to be ready for an early start tomorrow.