I woke up the this beautiful view outside our bedroom window. Grabbed some toast with some smeerbare (no really what they call margarine) and headed out.
The Synagogue was pretty amazing! I have never had the opportunity to visit one, and I was fascinated. I bought a museumpass and purchased it with my international student ID. It gives me complete access to museums, churches , and a lot more for or one year for 39 euros. They did not require me to put my name on it, so I will leave it here for the next visitor. Being Portuguese, I never knew there was an influx of Jews from Portugal to Amsterdam in the 17th century. The community was very poor and had difficulty finding work, so the synagogue was the center of their life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Synagogue_(Amsterdam)
Next I visited the Jewish Museum that covers the time period of the Jewish community in the Netherlands from 1900 - 1980. Of course the war years from 1940 when the Germans arrived until 1945 the most prominent. There were home videos of families at the lakes and parks, hundreds of family portraits and personal items such as a circumcision kit, prayer shawls and so much more. The museum was a very personal experience.The books and religious document collection was immense. It was not a collective history of a community but rather, a look into homes and family lives. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joods_Historisch_Museum
The next stop was the Dutch Resistance Museum. This was pretty incredible. It houses thousands of items used by the Dutch in there secret war against the invasion. The museum has recordings from the radio announcing the Germans had landed and to stay in your homes. Lists of executed resistance workers. And even an account by a friend of Otto Frank who was hidden near him in another house. http://www.verzetsmuseum.org/museum/en/museum
to 
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