Two Very Different Museums

Well today I did make the decision. After eating breakfast, I made the trek to the Anne Frank House. I got there maybe 15-20 minutes before opening and got in the queue that was already wrapped around a curb. In the biting winds I waited and meditated, listening as other people (be they couples or groups) chatted around me. Once inside, with as many people as there were, I could not help but feel slightly claustrophobic. However I moved through the museum, looking at where the Frank family hid for many years, and during that time I only spoke twice. Both of those times, it was to utter a prayer.

Being in that space, even for an hour, was something of an overpowering experience. I could only imagine what it would have been like to live in that space for years. After an hour, part of me was already yearning to be free, to get out. That might have more to do with my mild claustrophobia than anything else though. Listening to the voices of the Franks (there was a recording of Otto Frank) as well as those who knew them could lead one to cry. It led me to great silence and reflection. What I reflected on, I'm still grappling with. There will be a post later dealing with those reflections.

Following that visit, I decided to make the trek to Our Lord in The Attic. It is a museum that (as I found out) is open during its renovations. It was an underground Catholic Church during the time when Catholicism was outlawed in the Netherlands. Even during the renovations, there were many parts of the museum that were open and much that one could see. It was rather more filled than the Frank house (which is to be expected) and it was certainly a radical step away from what I saw in the Frank house (in terms of its content).

I went to two radically different museums. By the time I emerged from the second, I decided that I did not want to pay for a taxi nor make the trek to a third (that third would have been the Van Gogh museum). I shall have to return to Amsterdam one day just to see that space. However I think I have made good use of my time here so far.