Last week-end, the sun was shining so Katell and Margaux decided to go to the capital of the Netherlands.

Amsterdam was built as a village of fishermen on the 13th century. The name of the city comes from a dam which had been built on the Amstel river. The location of this dam gave birth to the main square of Amsterdam called nowadays "the dam".
Amsterdam is a part of the province of Noord-Holland. The river Amstel comes to throw itself into the IJ river forming a large number of canals in the center of the city. The capital is located 2 meters under the level of the sea and is connected to the North Sea by a long canal.

The visit started with a part of history, we walked to the museum of Anne Frank's house. The museum is located where the hiding place of the Frank family during two years (from July, 6th, 1942 to their arrest in 1944) was. The furnitures of the rooms are not anymore in the house as Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank and the only survivor from the hiding place of the Holocaust, asked so we found that the museum was a little bit empty. However the visit was a moving moment and we had to do it, it is the duty of memory. Here you can find more informations about the life of Anne Frank in the hiding place :  http://www.annefrank.org/en/Anne-Franks-History/ .

The weather was so cold in Amsterdam, around -15°C , that allowed us to take a walk on the canals. This did not happen in the city for fifteen years! The Amsteldallois (the name of the habitants of Amsterdam) took advantage of the weather to ice-skate. Such a funny experience!

The visit of the city continued from the famous main square of Amsterdam and the royal palace of the Dam to the train station where Katell was looking for the big "I AMSTERDAM".

Amsterdam is really cosy and looks like more a village than a metropolis, the uncountable canals and the long houses make the character of the "Venice of the north" with a little Russian touch. Then, we lost oursleves in the red light district, shame on us!

The temperature do not allow us to ride bicycle around the city so we choose the tramway. It the second easier way to travel around the city, it is impossible and useless to drive by car in Amsterdam. We bought a "strippenkaart", a day-ticket which costs seven euros and allows to take the tram, the bus and the subway if you are too lazy to take a walk or if the weather is too cold.

We finally found the famous "I AMSTERDAM" and took a lot of pictures. We were such tourists there.

  Written by Margaux