Hallo! Welcome to day 5 of my blog. We started the day with a tour of Our Lord in the Attic museum in central Amsterdam, which is a hidden church. In the 16th century, catholicism was outlawed in the Netherlands, requiring all people must practice Protestant religion. The catholic church then decided to make several hidden churches to secretly practice their religion, because they would be “tolerant,” meaning they wouldn’t die for being catholic, but were not allowed to practice it openly without trying to hide. This taught me a lot about Dutch people, who are very tolerant of different races, religions, languages, cultures, and ideas. I think America can take a lesson from the Netherlands on how to be tolerant, in order to sustain a more comfortable diverse population.
There were around 20 secret churches in Amsterdam, they had similar naming to how the gevelstones were named houses. For example, to refer to this church people would call it “the heart” so non-locals could easily find the church before the time of GPS. This church was later rebuilt to make the famous St. Peter’s Basilica in Amsterdam in the 19th century.
The house was very interesting to see, because it had 7 floors, 3 of the top floors included the church. Other rooms housed original decor from the home and the 17th century. One of the most beautiful pieces from the church was St. Peter holding the key to heaven and hell, a large statue. The owner of the house got a lot of money from tax collection, which allowed him to craft impressively symmetric rooms and get marble for the floors. The most interesting part of the tour was seeing the collection of beautiful dishes thrown in the cesspit. I wonder why the people threw away such beautiful pieces of art in the toilet.
The setup of this house was extremely different to old houses in the States, similar to the Anne Frank house as well, the staircases were very small and extremely steep. Additionally, the states have never had a hidden church, due to our history of freedom of religion.
Next, we headed off during free time to try the touristy Dutch fries (which were delicious) and Van der Linde ice cream which was a Dutch staple, tasted just like cool whip, and was only 2 euros. Then, we visited the famous and extremely large Rijksmuseum (I got in for free because i am less than 19 yrs old!) There were so many paintings and pieces of artwork, we were there for three hours and only saw around half of the museum. Some highlight paintings are the Milkmaid by Veneer, Night Watch by Rembrandt, and Van Gogh self portrait. One fact I learned was that the famous Dutch Delft blue pottery is a direct copy of Chinese pottery, and uses black ink that turns blue with sun exposure. This museum reminded me a lot of the MET in NYC, due to its size and relevance.
Finally, we met as a group for our final group activity, the Anne Frank House. It was extremely valuable and interesting to see the house up close, walk through the secret annex, and understand the Diary of Anne Frank (which I read in eighth grade) in a different and more personal perspective. The most impactful part of the tour was immediately after we entered the secret bookshelf, everyone was completely silent despite there being many people inside. Everyone moved very slowly and looked at all of the signs and artifacts quietly (we were also advised to not take pictures). This really showed me exactly how Anne and her family felt having the move slowly during the day, avoiding creeks and sounds, in order to not get reported by the workers below for two years straight. It also reminded me of the importance of democracy and freedom of speech, in order to stop government-sponsored genocide and save lives and livelihoods of marginalized populations in the future.
Altogether, my favorite moment of the day was seeing the model of the Anne Frank House, as well as the model of the hidden church, because I really enjoy looking at models of buildings and they were very well done. This was a very packed and exciting day for the last full day in Amsterdam, and I am excited to try cheeses and see windmills tomorrow. Until then, Doei!
