Amsterdam, Day 3

     Looking up at the Anne Frank House, you realize that the building itself is a whole lot bigger than what it is in mind's eye.  It's actually two building, each four stories tall.  The building itself was her father's business, printing, I think.  The stairs for the different stories were steep (so steep
that I kept injuring my shins) and they kept going up... and up... and up.  There were various rooms leading away from them, until finally we were stopped by a bookcase.  Small and convincing, you would never know that it concealed a hobbit sized door leading to two small rooms that concealed the eight people in hiding.  To decorate one of the rooms, Anne and her sister pasted some magazine clippings up to the walls to, "Add some cheer in these dark times."
     There were several videos by the survivors remembering what it was like in the two years they were in hiding.
     For lunch, we ate at Wagamama, which is a super tasty Chinese restaurant.  I got Sako Yabo (or something like that) which is made out of noodles, shrimp, chicken, veggies, and various spices and is super super tasty. Thankfully, they had wifi so I was able to check in with Mom and Dad, who were just beginning breakfast.
      Then, we explored the famous canals of Holland on a canal cruise.  There, we saw lots of beautiful architecture, house boats, and some more of those weird ducks.  We also saw the smallest building in central Amsterdam, which was four stories, straight up.  It had a very small base and was very narrow.  The reason why the building are tall, thin, and sharing walls, is because they simply ran out of space.  The government divided the land up into small parcels of land shaped as rectangles.  People bought them and the building took up all of the space with buildings which were coincidentally not very big at the base so they just made them super tall.
     There was also the most famous bridge in Amsterdam which is only opened and closed 4 times a week! After the cruise, we went to a traditional Hollish restaurant.  We had a weird, yet yummy, meatball thingy and a combination of mashed potatoes and carrots.  It was a bit like baby food.




 We turned in for the night, as exhausted as the first.