Friday, July 30th
We both got to the train station on time (luckily) and said good morning to our friend at the desk. Matt got a sandwich and I got cheesebread (I love the taste of crispy cheese). With a eurail pass, you just have to hope there are open seats and sometimes sit between cars unless you reserve. We got to Amsterdam in the afternoon and that is not good. We had a number in the 1 and a half hour long info line. We took a taxi to Anne Frank's house and it was neat but depressing. They still have the pictures up that she glued on the walls. Back at the station we found we needed reservations, but could only get some for one part of the way. We made it to Haarlem and a dude from the train told us where Corrie Ten Boom's house was. (We would have gone to the Van Gogh Museum too, but it was already closed - early office hours, I tell you.) Her house was closed, though! Darn it! At least I saw the house. There were covers over the windows so we couldn't even see inside. Then we bought shwarmas and got back to the station. Confusing - NO ENGLISH ANYWHERE! At least in Germany they have it underneath the larger writing. We met a couple from El Salvador, so Matt talked to them. We got kicked out of those seats. Then we sat between cars and the ticket lady said that I could sit with Matt in 1st class until Duisberg, so we went from the worst seats to the best! Duisberg was tiny and quiet. I looked at some cool silver jewelry and the guy was totally trying to get me to buy it. We walked over to an old church and got a picture, but Matt wanted to leave because a creepy dude was watching us and, as he said, "I've been held up six times". We talked to the Spanish people again and Matt got their address so we could send them missionaries in Seville, where they are living. In our reserved compartment, a dude slept across three seats, so I slept across the other three and Matt slept on the floor under the seats. It was so hot, so we opened the window and it was loud.