14.02.11

Anne Frank Huis (Anne Frank House)

Last Monday I finally managed to visit also Anne Frank House, which definitely is one of the most popular museums in Amsterdam.

When I moved to Amsterdam for the first time, I used to work just around the corner of the museum and therefore was passing by there a lot. It always (always!) had a huge queue of people waiting to get in, I was always wondering how long do they wait in the queue... Even around 8:30-9am when I was going to work, there was already a queue...

However, until recently it was not possible to visit the museum with the Museumkaart. As the references I heard were not so great, I didn't bother paying the entrance fee and visit it. But now you can enter there for free with the Museumkaart, so on a quiet Monday evening Michael and me managed to visit it. For him it was the second time, for me - the first.

The first surprise - no queue at all! OK, it was Monday evening and it is winter, I understand. But still!

The second surprise - you are not allowed to take pictures. Pity...

The third surprise - it is indeed nothing special. When people say "nothing special" (apart from Mr Ainārs Šlesers (Latvians will understand what I mean :P)), I still expect something more - because there might be different tastes and opinions. But the museum was... kind of empty.
You could walk through all the building where Anne's father Otto used to work and also see the Annex where Anne and her family was hiding. However, Otto didn't want to have any furnitures in the rooms when he opened the museum, so the rooms have just some information on the walls with quotes from Anne's diary. There is also a small model house where you can see how the Annex looked like.
Apart from that, in the new part of the museum there is an interactive exhibition about human rights in different circumstances and countries. You could also send a video greeting from Anne Frank House. We sent two, but only one arrived in the receiver's mailbox...

I can imagine that loads of people want to see the place where Anne and her family was hiding. However, if it's your first time in Amsterdam, you do not have a lot of time and you are on a low budget - I think that it's one of the museums you can miss without feeling sorry for it. Better buy her diary (in Amsterdam's bookshops you can find several versions) and read it again and again.

P.S. Pictures from Google!

1 komentārs:

  1. I know, I was so bummed out when they told me I can't take any pictures inside... :(

    as far as museum goes, I thought it was a bit empty as well. but I thought it was still interesting to look where ann frank have been hiding for 2years.

    http://natnenno.blogspot.com/2011/03/amsterdam-uno.html

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