After getting to our hotel and checking our luggage, we grabbed another taxi back to the center of Amsterdam. We had a 2:30 tour which was an intro to Amsterdam and a visit to a diamond factory and Anne Frank house. We found the tour office and exchanged our voucher for tickets. We had an hour to kill so we found a local restaurant and had lunch. The boys had penne and butter with a side of fries, I had a very good bowl of tomato soup with a dllop of cream on top, and Doug ordered a hamburger. All in all it was a good meal.
At 2 we met our tour group and walked a few blocks to the bus. The tour began with a drive around the city. Our tour today was in English and Spanish. Our tourguide had a very gentle voice which would make anything she said sound just lovely. The funniest time this happened was when we went through a certain neighborhood with many multi-colored striped flags. She explained that the flags were the international symbol for GLAAD, and anywhere you saw them above a business door it meant "Is gay? Is OK!" To hear her say that in her gentle voice would almost make you agree. It was definatly a "you had to be there to understand" moment. (I know many may disagree with my views, but I am not preaching and would prefer to agree to disagree rather than engage in an argument.)
We also saw the main shopping district, which has roads only open to pedestrians. Along the way we encountered a rather large demonstration parade against whatever is going on in Turkey at the moment.
The "diamond factory" was actually a jewelry store. They did have a brief demonstration of the different stages a diamond goes through from the ground to the ring on your finger. Then we went upstairs to a private viewing room, where we were showed different grades of loose diamonds and explained the differences. Finally she brought out several trays of jewelry that was for sale. Anyone not interested in buying could go downstairs to exit, through the discount sale room, of course.
Our final stop was Anne Frank house. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures here. This, too, fascinated Josh. That fact reminds me of something Anne Frank's father, Otto, said on one of the videos playing in the museum. He knew about Anne's diaries but never read them while she was alive. After the families were captured, one of his assistants found them and decided to keep them safe until she could give them to Anne after the war. When that became impossible due to Anne's death in the concentration camp, she gave them to her Father, the only surviving Frank. It took him several years, but finally he read them. He said he was amazed at what they contained. She had never let on her fears to him that were contained within those pages, even though they had a very close relationship. He said that you never really know your children as well as you think you do. This is becoming apparent where Josh is concerned. The things I thought would bore him to pieces have held his interest, and they have all been very deep things. It saddens me to think there are parts of him I may not know about, but I am very proud of the new things I am seeing in him on this trip.
After touring the museum, we got a cab back to the hotel and ordered dinner. Pizza and mozzarella sticks for all but Josh, who ordered his standard cheeseburger. Unfortunately, hamburgers are another thing that taste different here. This time, and the last, the burgers have had a strange taste to us, so the one food we were pretty sure he could get everywhere is turning out not to be as helpful as planned.
It was then off to bed, for we had another tour to het ready for in the morning.
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