A Note from Melissa

We are having some technical difficulties - Mac, browser, compatibility, server... who knows! I will post and fix the formatting and links as able. Thanks for your patience!

This is actually from Wednesday night, 24.5.06:

As Drake said, this morning we took a bus tour of Amsterdam proper as well as a small area south of the city. Our first stop was at a windmill, the old fashioned kind, with a statue of Rembrandt and some grazing sheep nearby. We did, indeed, stop at a cheese farm where the owner of the family business also makes clogs. The morning was drizzly and cool, but fortunately during these stops it had, temporarily, cleared.

After a break for lunch we regrouped and walked about three miles to the Dutch Resistance Museum. I warned the students that we would walk a lot! I'm not sure if they believed me - they do now.The museum is located in the Plantage area of the city, an area that had a greater number of Jewish residents than others parts of the city. I won't try to recount everything we heard and saw, but it's worth noting that our guide's grandfather was a Jew married to a Catholic woman and, for that reason, was spared deportation. As our guide pointed out, he should have been forced to succumb to sterilization, but on two attempts he managed to avoid the procedure. And, thus, our guide's father was born in January 1945. There are many amazing stories from that era, but the one that "gets"me the most is this one.

The building where many Jews were held prior to deportation, the Hollandse Schouwburg, is across the street from a space that, at that time, became used as an annex for the children who were awaiting deportation. Running on that street, Plantage Middenlaan, was and is a tram. The story goes that the guards in front of the Hollandse Schouwburg couldn't see the children's building when the tram stopped. At various times children would be smuggled out and into the stopped trams to be whisked off to safe houses. This story can be found in detail that does it justice here.

If you find yourself in Amsterdam you are likely to hear about, and perhaps visit, the Anne Frank House. I strongly recommend a visit to both the Dutch Resistance Museum and Hollandse Schouwburg as well.

This evening we had our class "welcome dinner" at Haesje Claes on Spuistraat. The menu was salad, salmon with bernaise sauce, little roasted potatoes, beans, and apple pie. I also found it interesting that, in addition to the planned menu, they brought bowls of french fries to the table. All in all, I thought it was a delightful meal. French fries w/ mayo - how could it not be? When we left the skies were clear and we had a nice stroll back to the hotel. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a drier tomorrow!