Today we took a 9 a.m. ride on the metro to Amsterdam Centraal for our activities for the day. We went to Our Lord in the Attic Museum, had some free time, and then we went went to the Anne Frank Museum. Something important to note is that today is Ascension day. Ascension day commemorates the Christian belief of the bodily Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. Ascension day is a national holiday in The Netherlands and the residents have today and tomorrow off. This made Amsterdam extra busy, but it was cool going to Our Lord in the Attic on this day.
Our Lord in the Attic Museum is a set of three connected houses that were turned into a church. The reason for hiding the church was because Catholicism was banned in the 17th century by the Protestants in Europe. The Catholic churches were destroyed and stripped of the non-Protestant features and they weren’t allowed to practice their faith anymore. Because of the tolerant environment in The Netherlands; however, people were actually able to practice their religion as long as it was not visible. So, that is how hidden churches came to be. It’s also interesting that people knew it was going on because 150 people would show up to mass, but no one would say anything. The one we visited today was one of many across The Netherlands, and this one belonged to a wealthy German who got his wealth by selling silk stockings. He bought the three houses and stripped the inside of the houses. It was amazing to see the engineering they were able to do in the 17th century to be able to open up three floors and keep the structure sound. The church itself was three stories tall, sitting itself on top of the bottom floors and multiple underground floors. The alter looked as though it was made of marble, but we were informed it was wood because marble Since I’m not Catholic I learned that Catholic churches show Jesus on the cross which no other religion does.
With some free time after the Our Lord in the Attic Museum, a few of us walked around Amsterdam to take in more of the sights, do more shopping, and grab some lunch. Something about Amsterdam is that there is a burger restaurant and pancake house on every corner. They also know how to make good pancakes here. So, we chose to go to a pancake house for lunch.
We finished the day off with the Anne Frank House which is a museum now, but it was the actual house she hid from the Nazis in. This was a self-guided tour that required us to scan the wall along the way and hold the phone up to our ear to listen. It was really cool being in the exact spot that Anne Frank was in hiding and seeing the real copies of her journals. The inside was kept exactly house it was, except the furniture was taken. I learned a lot from this tour because I never learned much about Anne Frank, nor have I read her diaries. It’s a really sad story, but it nonetheless taught us a lot about what it was like to be in hiding during this time. I didn’t know that she enjoyed writing so much that she wrote short stories and poems as well. They also couldn’t use the bathroom at all during the day because the toilet would be too loud and give their hiding spot away. I would say this was my favorite part of the day, and I look forward to reading more about Anne Frank and her journals.
