Today was filled with lots of cultural visits as it is a national holiday here in the Netherlands. We started with a tour of our lord in the attic, a museum centered around an old Catholic church. I don’t consider myself a very religious person, so a lot of the information I was taking in in the church was completely new to me. It was interesting to learn about the history of different religions in the Netherlands, specifically how tolerant the city was of all types of religions. While today allowing different religions to practice as long as they don’t do so in public would not be seen as tolerant, one hundred years ago it made Amsterdam one of the most tolerant cities on the planet. Learning this at the museum made me realize that this is the reason that Amsterdam is so open to many different types of people today. Amsterdam is one of the most open and tolerant cities currently and that is definitely something I have noticed during my time here so far.

After a long lunch break where I tried some classic Dutch pancakes, we took a trip to the Anna Frank house. This is one of the visits I was most looking forward to and it was just as interesting as I thought it would be. When you walk into the museum, There are many quotes from Anna’s diary written on the walls which are interesting but almost haunting to read. Just knowing you are making your way to where Anna and her family were hiding from the Nazis and also knowing that they didn’t make it out alive gives the museum a disturbing aura. While sad, getting to walk through the very place where Anna hid and wrote her diary was so cool, and it made me think about how if this was how a wealthy Jewish person was living during the time of WWII, how much everyone really suffered.

While we did a lot today, and it was all very heavy stuff, I feel like I learned so much about the culture and history of the Netherlands. I can’t say that I’ve fully digested all the information I received today, but what I have has already made me appreciate Amsterdam differently.