We were to board our ship the Uniworld River Queen in three days. During that time, we hoped to tour Bruges and visit the Anne Frank House. The second night we would have to move from the Grand Amrath (the Shipping House) to the more ordinary Marriott Renaissance Amsterdam. Then, the next morning, a Uniworld bus would take us to the River Queen, docked not far away on the Rhine. Our activities were quite well planned, I thought, but as it turned out, the best laid plans often get messed up.
One of the most famous museums in Amsterdam is the Anne Frank House and it is always crowded with tourists. The concierge at the Amrath told me that the best way to buy a ticket for a tour was to go to the website .www.annefrank.org/ There it was possible to buy tickets for our preferred day and time as soon as they became available, two months ahead of time. This seemed like good advice as if you don’t buy your ticket in advance, you will have to stand in a long line of hopeful ticket buyers the day of your visit.
On the date we had chosen, we waited patiently tickets in hand in line with crowds of people swirling around us. What we didn’t know then was that the day we picked to visit the AFH was also the day of Amsterdam’s huge Gay Pride Parade. The participants were already assembling by the Gay Pride Memorial the Homomonument, which is quite near the AFH, when we arrived for our tour. More about this later.
You may have noticed in some of my photos that the historic center of Amsterdam is populated with thousands of very tall narrow houses built wall to wall. Up til our visit to the AFH, we had never been in one. We did’nt realize that they did not have elevators and that in order to get to the top one had to climb stairs which became ladder like as one reached the top floor. Thus most of these old houses have a hook and cable attached to the roof by which they move furnishing in and out. Unfortunately similar stairways in the AFH would almost be our downfall.
For some reason, I didn’t even consider that the Anne Frank House might not be handicap accessible, especially after reading a number of glowing reviews. My mistake. Of course the old house was not built as a museum. Having now been through it, the Ramblers could see that there is really no space to add an elevator, and so we strongly recommend that if you have trouble with stairs, you only visit the modern museum attached to it. What made visiting the old house even worse was that people took an overlong time looking at the displays yet even more people kept entering at 15 minute intervals. If you are claustrophobic, this can also be an issue as the rooms are small and crowded. You can’t go back after you climb the first set of stairs, so we grimly kept going to the top. Going down was even worse but we survived without any mishaps. We didn’t enjoy our visit, and tired and sweaty, we were happy to step outside into the fresh air.
There was another surprise awaiting the Ramblers. We found that we were trapped at the Anne Frank House Complex because all the streets had been blocked off for the Gay Pride Parade. Those crowds we had seen swirling around the house, had come for the parade. From what we saw, it was a great parade, lots of people of all kinds having a fine time. Some of their costumes were both amazing and startling but I didn’t take any photos, except from a distance as many were very X-Rated.
Amsterdam’s Homomonument, the world’s first, is located quite close to the AFH, next to the nearby canal. Of course it was the starting point for the Amsterdam Pride parade, which was held on July 30 in 2017, the day we visited the Anne Frank House. As much as we might have enjoyed watching the parade, we were hungry and tired and simply wanted to take a taxi back to the Amrath. But not only were there no taxis available, it seemed we couldn’t escape from the AFT area until the parade was over as all exits except the canal were blocked and they don’t have water taxis in Amsterdam that we knew about.
Then the senior Rambler had a brilliant idea…he suggested we join the parade until we got to a place where we might find a taxi. After all, not everyone was wearing a costume or waving a flag. Since our only other option was waiting until the end of the parade, we decided it was a good idea and started marching along. It was a friendly group and no one seemed to mind as we slowly edged our way to the other side of the throng and then slipped out when we reached a likely intersection. At last I flagged down a taxi and we were on our way to the Amrath for a well-earned rest. Later on we walked to the canal and watched a variety of boats motor through in a watery traffic jam.
The next day was our trip to Bruges, highly recommended as a beautiful medieval city by our youngest son. I booked a day trip though Viator, a subsidiary of Trip Adviser. We had good luck with them in the past but not this time. Lindbergh Tours was the vendor and we had to get to their office, according to their directions, at least 15 minutes early. We found their office near the Damrak which seems to be a general meeting spot, checked in and were given a group color. Although we were early, we found to our dismay that others had come even earlier and there were already three full bus groups waiting for their guides. The office manager assured us that there would be another bus for our group and I guess there was, but the Ramblers never saw it. The young man who was to take us to the bus headed off at a very brisk pace and we soon fell behind. Unfortunately the senior Rambler is not a fast walker. I told him I’d try to catch up with the group and tell them to slow down. But it was a lost cause.
By this time, I was already behind and the bus seemed to be quite a long distance away, evidently on the other side of the Centraal station. When I finally reached the Station I could see the group disappearing out the other side, and in my haste, tripped on some marble steps and fell on my face. Some nice British tourists helped me up and I assured them that I was OK, but now, not only had I lost the tour group which was probably headed for Bruges by now, but I had lost the senior Rambler. This was not a good feeling. I slowly retraced my steps through the station, noticing that I might have a few bruises the next day, but he wasn’t there. Well, I thought, if he wasn’t inside, he must be outside, and so he was. We slowly walked back to the Lindbergh Office to tell them what had happened.
Needless to say, we didn’t make it to Bruges, but we did get the money we had paid for the tour refunded. They told us to keep the vouchers for the canal tour that came along with it and so after lunch we headed for the Dam Square again where we would board our tour boat. The senior Rambler does enjoy boats and so despite our miserable morning, we had fun on the tour. There are many companies that offer canal tours in Amsterdam. I don’t remember which one was our bonus boat ride, but I think it was the Blue Boats. If you are thinking of taking a canal tour, the Ramblers recommend spending a little more for a tour boat with open windows. The Plexiglas windows on our boat made taking decent photos almost impossible. That was a shame because there was much to see.
The next morning, after enjoying a nice breakfast at the Amrath, we checked out and headed to the Renaissance Marriott by taxi. We were glad to leave the slippery front steps of the Amrath behind, although we loved the maritime atmosphere of the place. On a map, the two hotels aren’t far apart, but the Ramblers were not willing to brave cobblestones, bicyclists and scooters, while dragging our luggage with us. Again we were able to check in early at the Marriott, which left us with a pleasant afternoon to explore the area around the hotel.
