We hope you enjoyed our day at the Uffizi in Florence, but it’s now time to move on. We’re going to head about 860 miles (1380 kilometers) northwest to the Dutch capital city of Amsterdam. Amsterdam is known for its extensive canals, impressive architecture and more than 1500 bridges. In Amsterdam, we’re going to stop at 2 iconic locations – the Rijksmuseum and Anne Frank House.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Canal District was dug in the 17th century to attract wealthy home owners and is still quite a posh neighborhood. Amsterdam prospered during this time and became one of the world’s great cities. A global trading network and overseas possessions made it the center of shipping in Europe and the worlds leading financial center.
Our first stop in Amsterdam is the Rijksmuseum – the national museum of The Netherlands.
Rijksmuseum is home to world famous masterpieces from the Dutch Golden Age, including the Milkmaid by Vermeer and Night Watch by Rembrandt. The museum itself is also an architectural masterpiece with 80 galleries containing 8000 objects telling the story of 800 years of Dutch art and history.
Check out the Google Arts & Culture story on the famous Milkmaid
https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-milkmaid/cQJib89R45GfJg
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”16″ display=”pro_horizontal_filmstrip”]
Our second stop in Amsterdam is the Anne Frank House. During World War II, Anne Frank hid from Nazi persecution with her family and four other people in hidden rooms at the rear of a 17th century canal house. She did not survive the war but kept a wartime diary which was published in 1947.
“As long as this exists, and I may experience it, this sunshine, that sky that is not a cloud on, I cannot be sad that long.”−
Anne Frank House – in center of photo
The family was apprehended in 1944, and Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. The diary was retrieved by Miep Gies, who gave it to Anne’s father, Otto Frank, the family’s only known survivor, just after the war was over. The diary has since been published in more than 60 languages.
The Anne Frank house museum was opened in 1960. It preserves the hiding place, has a permanent exhibition on the life and times of Anne Frank along with an exhibition space about all forms of persecution and discrimination. You should not go to Amsterdam without visiting the Anne Frank house but be certain to get your tickets well ahead of your visit as it is constantly sold out.
To explore this amazing one of a kind museum, visit the outstanding Google Arts & Culture page.
https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/anne-frank-house
