We are off now to Amsterdam for three weeks before we set sail on our cruise in the Baltic and to St Petersburg, Russia. We left Perros-Guirec, stayed over night in Amiens again. But this time it was relatively empty for a Saturday evening because many people are on vacation further south. Sunday, we left for Amsterdam and the traffic wasn't too bad. We were surprised that we weren't stopped at the borders either going into Belgium and then into the Netherlands. France has called up an additional 24,000 troops to guard the borders.
We haven't spent time in Amsterdam in quite a while so it will be fun to rediscover all of the things we found so charming about it years ago. One haunting memory however, that seems ingrained in my head is our visit to the Anne Frank House and breaking down when I saw the pencil marks where her parent measured her growth during their hiding. For some reason, that tangible remembrance destroyed my composure. The other stored image is that of a cheese market in Alkmaar, where large quantities of cheeses were bought and sold at auction as they were hundreds of years ago.
