Hello! Today, we did a number of cultural visits, including the Our Lord in the Attic museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Anne Frank House. We started at the Our Lord in the Attic museum, which is actually 3 connected houses that hid a Catholic church on the top floor. One of the houses belonged to a wealthy man in the 17th century when it was illegal to practice Catholicism in public. Furthermore, all Catholic churches had been closed, so it was difficult for Catholics to practice their religion. The wealthy owner of the house decided to combat that issue by tearing down the walls on the upper levels of his house and building a Catholic church.

150 practicing Catholics in the area gathered in this hidden church to attend religious services each week. This church was through the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, so there were a number of different owners of the houses within which it was disguised. At one point, one of the homes was owned by a Protestant, who actually helped the Catholics continue to practice in their hidden church. This museum was really cool to walk through. From the outside, it looks just like any other building on the street. On the first two floors, it looked like the inside of a normal house in Amsterdam (or at least what I have been told a normal house in Amsterdam looks like on the inside), with small rooms and narrow staircases. You would never expect there to be an entire church inside; it was crazy to see!

What I enjoyed most about this museum was learning about how the Protestants living underneath the church had no problem with Catholics practicing upstairs. Even though they may not agree on all issues, they found something to agree on: a desire to practice their own faith.

The Anne Frank House told a similar – yet much more devastating – story. As far as I know, everyone has heard the story of Anne Frank and her family hiding in an attic for two years to avoid being murdered under the Nazi’s rule. But today, I learned a lot more about the young girl’s life. She was an aspiring and excellent writer, and there was a lot more to her life than hiding. She lived a normal life for years before the war, but after the Nazis invaded Amsterdam, happy days were “few and far between” for her and her family. Before today, I thought of her as a young, innocent girl who was murdered for no reason. That is very true, but now I think of her as an inspiring young woman who had many dreams. She wanted to write; she desperately wanted to be a journalist. She was robbed of that dream, and that thought actually made me tear up in the museum today. She was so admirable. I am very thankful that I had an opportunity to learn more about her.

Thank you for reading! Tomorrow’s agenda: cheese!