After Jonathon hopped in the taxi to the airport on Monday at sunrise, I did what any logical person would do. I laced up my running shoes and explored the city before there was a need to dodge bikers and trams. My run was peaceful and quiet, but maybe a little too quiet. I was beginning to question if I could entertain myself for a whole week. Well I did, and you are so lucky because you get to find out how:
1. Pound the pavement in shorts and without being concerned about heat stroke (both non options in Qatar at the moment). There was daylight from 5am to 11pm, so there was plenty of time for exploring the city while feeling safe.
2. Enjoy the outdoors. The beginning of the week was filled with many sneeze attacks and allergies because my body forgot how to react to green grass, but the running nose was worth the views and sounds of nature.
3. Have a fiesta. Who goes to Amsterdam to eat Mexican food? This girl! I needed multiple evenings of fajitas to compensate for my eight month drought. This also might be a reason why #1 is on the list.
4. Educate myself. I visited the house where Anne Frank and her family hid for two years during WWII.
Otto Frank moved his family from Germany to Amsterdam when Hitler came into power. After the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, they went into hiding above his company warehouse. The bookcase below hid the secret entryway to the hidden rooms. The photo on the left shows the bookcase hiding the entry and the photo on the right shows how to access the secret rooms.
The eight people hiding were discovered and sent to concentration camps. Only Otto survived the concentration camps. Anne Frank died one month before the liberation.
Otto Frank moved his family from Germany to Amsterdam when Hitler came into power. After the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, they went into hiding above his company warehouse. The bookcase below hid the secret entryway to the hidden rooms. The photo on the left shows the bookcase hiding the entry and the photo on the right shows how to access the secret rooms.
5. Call for back-up. The travel department stars aligned and Sam was also in Amsterdam for work last night. Words cannot describe how great it was to chat her ear off.
6. Oh, and when all else fails I can entertain myself by eating German pretzels and blogging while in the airport waiting to return home.
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