anne frank house

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the only place i bought a ticket in advance was the anne frank house.  the tickets seem to let people in at 20 minute intervals.  one of the girls in the hostel recommended going late afternoon.  she said that there was not a line then.  so, it may be similar to the case of the van gogh museum.  this was one of the few museums that opened at 9 and it seems like getting there then would make sense.  there was a huge difference in the line between 940 when i went in and 1030 when i came out.

the museum is a very well guided tour.  basically follow the person in front of you.  the pamphlet you receive when you walk in was very informative.  all notes of the museum were basically in the brochure that they give you when you walk in.  it was difficult to hear the audio at times since they had little headphones with a bunch of languages in each room.  you could hear the audio through the headphones that were not in use. 

the museum was very well done although seemed a little lacking at times in extra details or additional information.  obviously, the house was ransacked so very little is left from that, but would have liked more context around the holocaust and what happened to her father afterwards.  the museum was very focused on anne frank and amsterdam jews.  seeing the house felt like a movie.  it did match my imagination.  walking through the bookcase was eery. 

one thing i would have liked addressed was if anne's father tried to get them out, which i am sure he did.  what happened with that.  also i would have liked more info about how he decided on where they would hide, how long it took to put it together, etc.

it is definitely a must-stop in amsterdam.  it is currently expanding, so i will be interested to see how that changes the layout and flow of the museum.

time in museum: 1 hr
times visited: 1
overall: A-
Location: Anne Frank House, 1000 AS Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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