#12 – Ride a Dutch bike

Originally on the list at the suggestion of a friend was to ride a Boris bike.  Now I have never been much of a cyclist so this was something which was destined to be put off in the hopes of reaching 40 things before having to do it.  But then a trip to the Netherlands and well, lets be honest, if there is anywhere where you have to ride a bike it is here.  So I decided to give it a try.  Except the only option was my friend’s mum’s bike and I couldn’t even get on it, let along cycle it on Dutch roads, on the wrong side and with unfamiliar traffic rules, in a place I don’t know, in the snow and ice… yup, I bottled it!  But my friend doesn’t drive so the only transport options we had were walking or the bike.  And so my friends came up with a cunning alternative of me riding as passenger on the back.  Mirjam at nearly 9 months pregnant and with their 3 year old son Oliver already on her back obviously could not take me but Fabio is used to doing this with his own mum who is currently staying with them. 

And so I jumped on to the back shelf of Fabio’s bike.  The first stretch of journey was very very nerve racking!  Not that I didn’t trust Fabio, more that I mistrusted my own balance ability sitting side saddle on the back.  By the time we reached our first stop my legs were sore from the effort of holding them so stiff so that no passing car would clip them and so that they would not mess with the wheel or Fabio’s peddling.  At least being behind Fabio I was sheltered from the icy winds.  I kept thinking I should be looking around and enjoying the sights of Baarn but at this point I was too busy clinging on to Fabio while trying not to appear too scared.  We then walked for a bit and I pushed the bike to give Fabio a chance to recover (he insisted the problem was the icy winds not the weight behind him!). 

The second time I jumped on was much more fun.  I had managed to get a better balance and knew more what to expect.  This time I was able to enjoy returning the grins from little Oliver whenever the bikes levelled and to even enjoy looking at the scenes we were passing.  By the third and final journey I was able to blame any back weight on the shopping I was now carrying in a backpack and I was properly enjoying myself even though I was now freezing cold and it had begun to snow again.  Amazingly as we stepped through the door home and looked out again just minutes later the snow had got thick and heavy and we were very glad to be home in the warm house again.

So a bit of a cheat, but I did ride a Dutch bike …as a passenger!

#11 – Visit the Anne Frank house

The diary which Anne Frank wrote while captive and in hiding during the Second World War was another book which really impacted me when I read it as a teenager.  To read the story of another teenager who had such a different life to my own, who faces such struggles and yet is still, in so many ways, a normal teenager, I found really challenging. 

When I first heard that the house where she and her family had hidden was open as a museum I knew that one day I would have to visit it.  So when I arranged my visit to Amsterdam this was on the must do list.  We got started early on our final tour day as we knew that the queues can really build up at the Anne Frank museum.  Because of our wonderful museum cards we didn’t need to stand in a long line, but the more people coming in the more crowded the museum.

It was challenging to walk around the small area they all lived in and amazing to try to imagine what it must have been like to be forced to live here.  Although the area was actually bigger than I had imagined, to share it between so many people, with no chance of ever getting fully away from the other people you live with or to be able to just walk down the street, and to live in constant fear of being heard or discovered drastically shrinks the comfortableness of the area.  All the actual hiding rooms are kept empty and as it has been left after the occupants were discovered, arrested and taken away by the Nazis.  The museum items and video interviews explaining the history and looking at the lives of the occupants, particularly of Anne Frank and her family are placed throughout the areas which were previously the factory.  They are fascinating glimpses into lives so much bigger than the story of those few years, and lives which could have been so different.

Even as early as we got there it was busy and I found it hard to really engage when there were so many people that you were kept moving in a mass.  But it was still a very sobering hour or so during the tour and very thought provoking.   

I am really glad to have had the opportunity to see the house and to remember what can and did happen.  I am also so glad that Anne Frank responded to the suggestion to keep a diary to tell the war story.  More than that I am grateful that her father was courageous enough to get it published and willing to re-live the pain in order to open the museum.  It IS important that we remember!

I think that for me seeing this tour in isolation would have left me quite down, but set against the hope I had experienced seeing the Corrie Ten Boom house it was good to see different sides of the story, and to focus on the humanity and the potential for kindness and love even in the midst of the darkest situations.

#10 – A weekend in Amsterdam

Amsterdam held many draws for me which made me want to visit.  I had long wanted to visit the Corrie Ten Boom house and the Anne Frank house.  I had visited the Netherlands once before 5 years ago for a friend’s wedding but didn’t really get to see anything of Amsterdam beyond the airport.  Then Els moved there.  During one of her visits to England she spoke so much about her work there and the city itself that I knew that I just had to visit her there.  Then in December last year Els suggested that since both Elisabeth and I were talking about visiting her why didn’t we try and coincide our visits.  And that was just too good an idea to ignore!  Amazingly we actually managed it …and so a long weekend in Amsterdam was booked!

Despite taking the Friday off work I ended up having to chase up on a few things in the morning so it was really only once I got to the airport that I began to get really ridiculously excited about my holiday.   When I met up with Els and Elisabeth at Amsterdam airport it was as if no time had passed at all and we just got straight on with enjoying each other.  As we reached Amsterdam Central the snow began to fall and so my first glimpse of Amsterdam was of a white covered city.  We crossed roads, tram lines, avoided cyclists and headed down some beautifully cobbled little roads before reaching the warmth of Els’ flat and set about planning a fairly full on three days of activities. 

The first night there was certainly not without it’s excitements! ... At some point in the early hours I woke both Els and Elisabeth with my sudden scream as someone trampled across my mattress!!!  Elisabeth only woke from her sleepwalk at my scream!  I guess I should count myself lucky though as the last time we shared a room and she sleep walked she ended up hitting me round the face.  This time I escaped without injury! But clearly a full nights sleep with Elisabeth around is not to be had.

Despite our disturbed night we woke up on Saturday ready for a trip to Haarlem.  Not only to see the Corrie Ten Boom house, which I have wanted to see for many years now, but to catch up with mutual friend Joke that we also knew from our time in Brasil.  The train journey took us through some beautiful snowy scenes and once in Harlaam we headed straight to the Corrie Ten Boom house.  Not long after we finished there we met up with Joke while wandering Haarlem shoe shops.  Our wanderings took us on to a café where I had my first experience of Dutch apple pie… I was hooked and repeated the experience any chance I got over the weekend on our many coffee stops along the way.

From there it was time to get ourselves a museum card at the Franz Hals museum so that we could achieve the weekend we had planned.  In total we managed to get round 8 museums in the 3 days we had:  covering history, art, religion and culture, international and much more, and plus a whole lot of walking and talking between them all.  In brief… 

Corrie Ten Boom House       
 – The highlight of all the museums for me and totally inspiration.  See entry #8 for more details. 

Frans Hals museum              

– Bizarrely there didn’t seem to actually be a whole lot of Frans Hals pieces here– in fact I think we saw more of his work in the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam than here.  But the highlights instead here were the falling snow outside and the beautiful views through the window, and then the amazing dolls house – so amazingly detailed and beautiful.  

Tropenmuseum
– Pretty much a quick walk around the world.  We had expected a look just at the countries which had been Dutch colonies but actually they ventured to gather bits and pieces from as many countries as possible.  At times the generalisation across regions were a little too general but there were some interesting gems in there.  
Also gave me an entertaining opportunity to give myself a few African hair do's ...I don't think I'll be rushing to the hairdresser any time soon on my next trips! 

Jewish Cultural museum       
– A fascinating balance between ‘what is Judaism’ and the history 
and culture of the Jewish community in Amsterdam and the Netherlands.  So interesting and yet quite sobering too. 

Anne Frank house                  
– Another one I had wanted to see for years and so it gets an entry all of its own.  Coming soon. 

Amsterdam Historical Museum 
– A fun walk throught he history of Amsterdam (not surprisingly given its name!) 

Van Gogh gallery                    
– This is temporarily housed at the Hermitage Amsterdam while the Van Gogh museum is renovated. I've long been a fan of Van Gogh so I loved seeing his paintings up close. Having taught myself to draw and then worked as an art teacher for a few years I really loved his emphasis on learning art techniques 
and that art skill is not just something you are born with. 

Rijks Museum
– Final stop on the museum tour and we were disappointed to discover that the dolls house gallery was temporarily closed.  But there was an interesting presentation on the Queen ahead of her upcoming abdication to her son.  My favourite display was the clock that looked like there was a little man inside rewriting the time every minute.  

The three days went all too fast and we did eventually have to face the reality of the ticking clock and the passing days so that we didn’t get to all the museums we had hoped for – including the interesting concept of a handbag museum.  But what we did do was spend our days having lots of fun together, catching up, chatting and laughing a lot.  It was a great tonic and at the end I felt like the holiday was far longer than the three days it was even if it had gone so fast.