From Hamburg To Osnabruck By Train
Although, I was intending to go from Hamburg to Amsterdam, as I said in this post, things didn’t work out as I and probably Deutsche Bahn intended.
The train was a few minutes late out of Hamburg and my First Class carriage seemed to be missing from the German IC train I was on. (Note the missing E!) Or possibly I couldn’t get near it, as the aisles were blocked with cases. If I’ve complained about Virgin’s services to Glasgow in the past, then this was complete travel hell, that I’ve never encountered on British trains in the worst of times.
At Osnabruck, I was supposed to change onto another IC train for Amsterdam, but of course by the time we got there I’d missed it.
I waited for perhaps two hours on the station at Osnabruck and nothing seemed to be happening. There was no information posted and those in Information, told me to wait for the next Amsterdam train. But they had no idea of when it would arrive.
One lady, who lived locally, had told me that the hotel by the station wasn’t at all bad, so as I had nothing to do I took the precaution of seeing if they had any rooms. A pleasant fraulein told me they had a few at €80 including breakfast.
So about ten, I put myself out of my misery and booked into the Advena Hotel Hohenzollern.
Advena Hotel Hohenzollern
It was a decision I didn’t regret.
I thought that I might regret going to McDonalds for a bite to eat, but the fries and Coke had no effect. The trouble was that the information on the back of the paper on the tray is unreadable because it’s so small. So I assumed that they were as in the UK, and gluten-free! I did think though, that McDonalds were showing some very unsuitable adverts for their target clientèle.
On the other hand, breakfast in the hotel of fish, scrambled eggs, juice and coffee was excellent.
I would certainly use this hotel or one of the other, Advena hotels again. Also as a lot of the trains seem to go through Osnabruck, this hotel is a convenient place to break a journey.
Anne Frank
I said in the piece on Robert Fisk, that the next time I returned to Amsterdam, I would visit the Anne Frank House. Strangely later I went over the library at the Hotel Ambassade, where I saw a signed book by Fisk. It was one of many hundreds, by lots of famous authors!
I first visited the Anne Frank House in 1968 on my honeymoon. This was my second or possibly my third, as I can’t be sure that we didn’t visit, when we came to Amsterdam with the children around 1980. It was very different then and a much smaller museum without the new building to the right as you face the original house. This was added in 1999.
Perhaps, the building has lost some of its impact. When it was just the house it was smaller and this added to the claustrophobia, that Anne and her family must have suffered. But there is now a lot more information.
As I said in the original post, “when we forget the story of Anne and the diary, then we will probably have lost our humanity.”
Wandering Around Amsterdam
I took these pictures in Amsterdam over the last few days.
It was cold, but at least it was sunny!
Robert Fisk
There are few writers in the modern world of newspapers to rival Robert Fisk.
His piece today in The Independent on Lebanon, the holocaust, Anne Frank and the relationship between Israel and its enemies is a gem.
Read it!
Anne has always had a strong place in my heart. Whether it is because I have a small amount of Jewish ancestry or just because I hate injustice so much I do not know. Here’s what I wrote after a visit to Amsterdam in April 2008.
Everywhere in Amsterdam, there are posters of Anne Frank.
Not exactly Anne Frank, The Musical, as I really don’t think that would be the ideal work, but a symphonic tribute is being performed in Amsterdam based on her life and the famous diary.
It is quite right, that a little Jewish girl, her family and her diary caught up in the tragic events of the Second World War still hold the world in their thrall.
Her diary has now been translated into fifty-five languages and has sold over 20 million copies.
When we forget the story of Anne and the diary, then we will probably have lost our humanity.
As I write this book Cyclone Nargis has just devastated Burma or as the dictators prefer, Myanmar. Those dictators are ignoring offers of help from outside preferring to distribute the aid themselves, as letting others in might undermine their cruel regime, with thoughts of freedom and full stomachs.
Having read Wages of Destruction, by Adam Tooze, a book which describes the economic methods of Nazi Germany, I feel Hitler would be proud of their actions.
Because of the festivities the Anne Frank House was closed.
But next time I return to Amsterdam, I shall visit.
The festivities I spoke of, were the Queen’s birthday celebrations.
The Anonymous Widower 