After the Eating Amsterdam Jordaan Food Tour, I walked back over to the Anne Frank Huis, which had been too busy in the morning. I was told that the waits are often two-three hours long, but I got lucky, and only waited forty-five minutes. The sun was shining and they had free wifi for the queue.
Looking back on my pictures, I didn't take a single shot of the exterior of the house. Photograph is not allowed inside and really, even if it was, it would have felt disrespectful. Here is one more picture that I took of the queue.
The ticket price was nine euros and tickets can be purchased in advance. I highly recommend buying tickets in advance and skipping the queue. On their website, they mention a new ticketing system in which certain time slots will only be available to people who have pre-purchased tickets. The Anne Frank Huis is so popular, that you really should make a plan for visiting, rather than just showing up, like I did.
The tour is self-guided, a one direction walk through the house where eight people, ( the Frank family, the Van Pels family, and Fritz Pfeffer), hid for more than two years. The series of rooms where they lived, is accessible through an entrance hidden by a large bookcase. I'm not sure if there are other entrances that are handicap friendly, but the main tour includes narrow walkways and steep staircases. I was surprised that the rooms and the entire hidden area was actual quite large. I imagined them to be much smaller. I'm sure that the rooms felt confining to the people hiding, but I was amazed that they were able to conceal such a large portion of the house.
Viewing the Anne Frank Huis took about twenty minutes and it was a silent, solemn walk. I don't think a single person said a word and many were in tears. I can't imagine that anyone visiting the Anne Frank Huis would leave unaffected.
After walking through the house, there was a small, contemporary addition that houses a museum and learning center. It's in this area that Anne Frank's famous diary is on display. There was a quote about Anne Frank being the most famous resident of Amsterdam and I don't doubt it. I'm sure that most, if not all, American school children have read her diary. It was amazing to see the actual diary in person, which, like the house, was so different than I had imagined. It's quite large, with a red gingham print cover.
This last part of the museum goes into Anne Frank's legacy and shares many of her thoughts/quotes from the diary. Many of her thoughts are profound and wise beyond her years, leaving visitors to wonder about the adult she would have grown into, had she survived, and the grand scale of so many lives cut short. The thought of so much loss is overwhelming. The Anne Frank Huis is a must-do for anyone visiting Amsterdam.