​Day fifteen of the World War 2 Memorial Tour takes us to Amsterdam. The city and its canals are beautiful, but for our tour, the Anne Frank House is an important stop. The weather has cooperated the entire trip with just occasional mist during this usually rainy period.

​The City
This is my third time cruising the Amsterdam canals, once before with David during an earlier Rhine and Danube River Cruise and years ago with my daughter on a Netherlands tour. I still love the feel of going back in time that the local architecture provides. Looking at my Flemish and Netherlandish prints at home, time stands still. Artist Johannes Vermeer is a favorite.

​After the cruise we are dropped off at the Town Square. We have time to shop today and the Delft shop is one I can’t resist, especially the jewelry. The local restaurants are full on this busy noon, so we opt for the quick and familiar KFC and meet others from our group with the same idea. Marijuana smells permeate the air around us. Supposedly it’s only legal to smoke it outside the store where purchased or in public spaces, but the law doesn’t seem to be enforced.

​The Anne Frank House
The house is a fitting Holocaust-related visit near the end of our travels. The line to enter stretches around the corner. It’s always that way. The house is small. The instructions in our itinerary say “not recommended for those who may have difficulty climbing steep staircases or who are bothered by crowds or close quarters.” No one speaks as we walk through the house. There’s no rule. It just doesn’t seem appropriate. The history of the Holocaust seems to continue to speak most effectively to the world through the diary of one young girl. 

We all relate to her in our own way. I have a framed copy of one of her poignant quotes from the diary in my writing room:
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“As long as this exists,” I thought, “and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts, I cannot be unhappy. The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and god. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and the God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”

Traditions
On the way out of town, we make two stops to learn about three important traditions. The first is to a small manufacturing building where cheeses and wooden shoes are made. 



We also stop at a lovely old windmill, one of few remaining working ones in the area. ​

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​A busy day on the World War 2 Memorial Tour. Mostly bus travel again as we follow bridges around Arnhem, Netherlands, which were involved in Operation Market Garden, a complex series of incidents that few of us knew much about. 

National Liberation Museum
By fall of 1944 the allies decided they needed a quick road to Berlin that didn’t involve mountainous terrain or forests. The 82nd US Airborne Division, 101st, 1st British Airborne, and one Polish Independent Parachute Brigade were involved in Operation Market Garden, which involved a large geographical area, primarily Arnhem, Groesbeek, and Nijmegen.

Our guide at the National Liberation Museum 1944-45 in Grosbeek was eight years old when the town was liberated and remembers the day well—dancing in the streets, jazz records playing, and being introduced to American bubble gum. The museum leads you through the period preceding the war, experiences of the occupation, and liberation and rebuilding after the war.
A sad side note of the museum documents the Allies’ mistake when a misplaced bomb killed hundreds of citizens and ruined the town. The guides eloquently emphasize their loss. Maybe they are disappointed that the story of the Netherlands campaign seems to have been lost in the larger impressions of the war.
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These towns were under Nazi control from 1940 to September 1944. They  hid Jews in their midst and had little food. In the early years the Nazis ran things under lax rules, but their methods changed as the war became increasingly worse for Germany, and the SS took control. 

Netherland Bridges: 
On to Arnhem where a large bridge was involved in Operation Market Garden. The title of the popular film about the incident, A Bridge Too Far,  is from an unconfirmed warning comment attributed to British Lieutenant-General Frederick Browning, deputy commander of the First Allied Army, who told Field Marshall Montgomery that they “…may be going a bridge too far," referring to the intention of seizing the Arnhem bridgehead over the Rhine River.

Random Memories
​Food: In Nijmegen, we have a scrumptious lunch on a veranda. The tomato soup is accompanied by a “small apple pancake” the size of a medium pizza.
Along the way…We wonder if the many miniature horses we see in pastures are farm animals or pets. 

​Today we travel from Caen through Belgium to the Netherlands. During the morning drive we watch a documentary 100 Days of Normandie about D-Day and the continuing battle after June 6, 1945 until September when Paris was finally liberated. We’ve been so impressed with the films, lectures and other resources that Image has provided during the trip. Few World War specialty tours are available, and this one is affordable, mostly staying in historical out-of-the-way accommodations that give us the feel of the period we’re visiting.

​Flanders Field
We’re ahead of schedule, so we can make another World War 1 stop at the Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial, on the southeast edge of the town of Waregem, Belgium. Poppy flowers began to grow after the burial of the three-hundred fallen soldiers, which led Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae to write his memorable and apropos poem In Flanders Fields (public domain). A large, moving, print of the poem hangs in the cemetery reception center (below). 

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​​In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

This was one of our more emotional stops during the trip.
A recent New York Times editorial by Geoffrey Wawro reminds us that nearly a quarter of the American Army draftees in 1918 were foreign born. How ironic that so many died here, on foreign soil, so soon after adopting their new country.

Antwerp
If you like medieval architecture, you will love Antwerp, Belgium and its guild halls. But also look for the ghost of Reubens, Belgian lace, “1,000 brands of beer,” diamonds, and chocolates—hide the purse!

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​During our brief time here, we buy a few gifts, visit the old castle, now a mariner’s museum, and walk the town center with the well-preserved cathedral and guild halls.
 

​We arrive at our hotel in Tiel in the Netherlands. Three nights in a row in a modern hotel…with laundry service and a casino! We do like the historical hotels, but the reprieve from nightly packing and unpacking is welcome.
 
Next time: World War 2: Action in the Netherlands
 
Ann Otto writes fiction based on factual as well as oral history. Her debut novel, Yours in a Hurry, about Ohio siblings relocating to California in the 1910’s, is available on-line at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, and at locations listed on her website at www.ann-otto.com. Ann’s academic background is in history, English, and behavioral science, and she has published in academic and professional journals.  She loves speaking with groups about all things history, writing, and the events, locations, and characters from Yours in a Hurry. She is currently working on her next novel about Ohio’s Appalachia in the 1920s and preparing for future works by blogging about a recent World War 2 European tour. She can be reached through the website, on Facebook @Annottoauthor or www.Goodreads.com. ​