If its Tuesday, this must be Amsterdam

We woke up on Amsterdam time and made it to the buffet breakfast.  The construction men began their work for the day and off we went.  Our first stop was the flower market- shops on barges along one of the canals.  Then we went to the Amsterdam history museum; a nice display tracing the history of Netherlands and some of its people.  They made lots of money in world trade- and for a while claimed to be the capitol of the world.  Lots of fighting and rivalry along the way.  Lots of jews migrating here because of persecution in other places; so lots of craftsmen (diamonds and silver) and businesses.  Here is a great shot of the silver chests that rich families kept- like a safe.

Then we visited a canal house (double-wide) owned by a rich couple who collected art- and without children donated their house and collection to the city as a museum.  Our favorite room was the kitchen; painted in our yellow color with a cabinet that looks similar to ours- good taste Willetts!

Then we switched to the Jewish museum- with historical displays in the old synagogue; restored after WW II by the few jews that survived the holocaust. The reverence the Jews have for God's word (reading through the Torah each year) and preserving their faith in God's promises for redemption and a Messiah was worth pausing to consider.

And we made it into Anne Frank's secret annex where her family was hidden for over a year and where she wrote her diary that was saved by one of the women bringing them food and newspapers who was not captured when someone turned them in.  And the jewish quarter was located right where the river Amstel comes to an end at a small dam that blocks it near its mouth; the water now flows east and west into the canals of Amsterdam.  So we were roaming today along the Amstel River through Amsterdam on a Tuesday.