Visiting Anne Frank's House in Amsterdam

On our recent visit to Amsterdam we had a really interesting and informative visit to the Anne Frank House. You can find out more about Anne Frank here - Who was Anne Frank. A visit to the Anne Frank House gives you the opportunity to visit the actual rooms of the Secret Annex where Anne went into hiding with her family and others, as well as being the home of a large museum and other exhibitions. 

We visited the house probably around twenty years ago, and things have changed a lot during that time! So I thought I'd share some information in case you are planning a visit, something which I would absolutely recommend if you find yourself in Amsterdam.

The most important thing to know about a visit is that you must buy tickets in advance. I'm pretty sure that it would impossible to turn up on the day and be able to visit. Be very careful if you book a local tour that includes a visit to Anne Frank's House - you will almost certainly find that it doesn't include actual entry into the house. 

Tickets are currently released for sale six weeks beforehand on a Tuesday at 10am CEST. They are only available through the official website and must be purchased for a specific time slot. You can find all the information here - Anne Frank House. There are two types of ticket available - Museum Visit and a Museum Visit with a 30 minute introduction in English.

I was very keen to get tickets and knowing that we were visiting in the summer holidays on the same day as several cruise ships were in port I checked out the website for a few weeks before we actually needed to buy the tickets. 

I was interested in Museum Visit only tickets for a visit in the middle of August, and from discussion in our cruise group, tickets with the introduction sold out within minutes. By quarter past many time slots were full, but because each slot is only 15 minutes there were still plenty of tickets available for several hours after opening. By the end of the day most of the daytime slots for that week had gone, but a couple of days later there were still some evening and weekend slots available. 

I noticed that when the ticket slots opened up for the six week ahead mark there were also extra tickets released for dates which were previously fully booked. It's worth checking nearer the time if you miss out, and if you are visiting out of the main summer season and are flexible with your times you may be able to get away with booking a week or two in advance.

The entry time was very strict, and there was a queuing system outside while you waited for your slot to open. The ticket conditions make it very clear that there are no refunds and the purchaser must be with you at time of entry. You can't take bags but there is a free cloakroom, and the ticket price includes an excellent audio guide. The Secret Annex and the older part of the museum are unfortunately not accessible for wheelchairs, pushchairs or people with limited mobility as there are some incredibly steep staircases.

Your visit starts in the house next door, with an excellent introduction to the history of the building, the family and others who went into hiding, their helpers, and how the family managed to remain in hiding for so long. It also covers the fates of everyone involved once they were discovered. I found that it was pitched perfectly both to people who know Anne's story well and to those who are unfamiliar and want to learn more. The audio guide is really well paced and keeps people moving along. There are also lots of videos to watch which are on a loop so you can jump in at any point. 

Then you enter the Secret Annex itself, passing by the bookcase which concealed the entrance still in place. The rooms are unfurnished, but there are photographs in each room showing how they would have looked when occupied. There are also some family possessions on display. In Anne's room you can see the pictures which she glued onto the walls, and there are pencil markings which show Anne and her sister Margot's heights as they grew while in hiding. The rooms are small and would have been crowded when occupied, but at the same time it's astonishing just how much space there was hidden away. You can spend as long as you like looking around. 

After visiting the Secret Annex there are more exhibitions to see. The main draw here is Anne Frank's original diary and some of her other notebooks. There is also a model of the Secret Annex - the photo below shows the bookcase entrance at the bottom and the steep steps leading upwards. This really helps to understand how all the rooms are arranged, as it can be a bit confusing when you are inside. 

I think that Anne Frank's house is one of the must-see attractions if you are visiting Amsterdam. I'd been wanting to share the experience with my children for a long time, and so I'm really glad that we had the opportunity to do so. I hope that this helps if you are planning a visit!

A Better View: How to Prioritise Your Family's Eye Health

This is a collaborative post

In the hustle and bustle of daily life, it's easy to overlook the importance of your family's eye health. With short-sightedness on the rise, however, parents must take proactive measures.

Neema Ghorbani-Mojarrad, a registered optometrist and lecturer at the University of Bradford, explains that lifestyle factors are more significant than genetics in developing myopia. This means that you can take simple yet crucial steps to ensure your loved ones' vision health. In this article, we'll explore five effective strategies for prioritising your family's eye health.

Annual eye tests

Let's begin with the cornerstone of eye health — regular eye tests. Scheduling yearly check-ups with an optometrist is crucial, especially for children whose eyes are still developing.

In the UK, reputable brands like Specsavers offer comprehensive eye examinations. I visited one of Specsavers' branches for a free eye test in 2019 and found that, besides needing a new prescription, I also needed to change my old frames into a design that keeps up with the times. Thankfully, these appointments are usually covered by the NHS for children under 16 and those under 19 in full-time education. This can help families save money on prescriptions, so there's no excuse to skip them! Besides, early detection can prevent bigger and more costly vision problems down the road.

Stylish glasses and updates

In my post on the eye test with Specsavers, the optician immediately commented on how outdated the frames were. Glasses fashion can change quite a bit over the years. This means that whether you or your family already wear glasses or are just looking for stylish eyewear, getting your hands on the perfect pair is essential.

But how do you make this a fun family event? Enter Glasses Direct's online service, which allows you to try on glasses at home. For parents, you can select up to four stylish frames among the site's over 300 options that suit your lifestyle and personal preferences. Plus, you can involve your kids in the process, turning it into a bonding experience. Encourage them to pick designs they love, as this can ensure that they're excited to wear their glasses regularly and thereby reduce eye strain.

Screen time management

In today's digital age, screens are integral to our lives. However, excessive screen time can affect eye health, leading to digital eye strain and other issues. One way to reduce screen time is to increase the duration of your child's play time outdoors. Doing so has been found to reduce the negative effects of screen time on communication and practical skills and children’s development by almost 20%.

Otherwise, make use of parental control apps to manage screen time for your kids' devices. Brands like Norton provide excellent tools for monitoring and limiting screen time, with their antivirus software allowing parents to set content filters and time limits for their children's devices.

Eat your way to healthy eyes

You've probably heard the saying, "You are what you eat," which also holds true for eye health. Incorporate foods rich in essential nutrients like vitamins A, C, and E, as well as zinc and omega-3 fatty acids. These nutrients can help maintain good vision and prevent age-related eye conditions.

Otherwise, encourage your family to enjoy leafy greens, carrots, citrus fruits, nuts, and fish like salmon to support their eye health. Smoothies and salads are a delicious way to include these eye-friendly ingredients in your daily meals.

By incorporating these simple strategies into your routine, you can ensure your loved ones enjoy clear and healthy vision for years. So, start today, and here's to a brighter and clearer future for your family's eyes!

A quick visit back to Germany

I studied German at university, and as part of my degree I spent a year living as a student in Tübingen in southern Germany. I really enjoyed my year abroad, and although it was daunting at the time I am really grateful to have had the opportunity! I've been back to Germany a few times since, but not very recently, so I was really looking forward to a visit when our recent cruise stopped in Kiel on the north coast. 

Our plan for the day was a trip to nearby seaside town of Laboe to see the German U-995 submarine and memorial. The ship docked a little late that morning and we missed the ferry, so we decided to take a taxi to save some time. I let my husband deal with the taxi driver as I usually do, but when it became apparent that he couldn't speak English I stepped in with my long unused German, and to my surprise once the driver realised that I could speak German we managed to carry out quite a long conversation on the ride over! I was very impressed with how it all came back (and I think that the children were too!) We discussed big topics like immigration (he was Turkish) and racism, popular subjects like football and cycling, and he pointed out lots of the sights along the way. 

When we arrived at the submarine museum I spoke with the man in the ticket office about the ticket combinations available. Often in the past when I've spoken to someone in German they've answered me in English, but this man was very patient with me. Even though I am fairly confident that his English was far better than my German, he spoke with me in German and waited while I translated it all into English for the rest of the family!

The submarine was really interesting, and well worth a visit if you are in the area. We were the only visitors having got ahead of the crowds with the taxi - as we were leaving it was filling up with our fellow cruisers. I'm not sure if the lights had been accidentally turned off or if it's supposed to have a spooky atmosphere but in places it was pitch black and so we were grateful for the torches on our phones!

We took the ferry back to the town centre and had a wander around. Kiel isn't a regular on the cruise stop circuit and it's not really geared to the tourists. Most of the old city was destroyed in the war so it's not the prettiest, but there are a few historical buildings including the St Nikolai church and the lovely Hiroshima Park. It's a nice town though and there are lots of shops - we stopped at Primark for some Disney themed purchases and a supermarket for some German chocolate (Ritter Sport!) I also treated myself to a German magazine and was pleased to find that I can easily understand the articles. 

I was on the lookout for a magazine that I used to buy often when I lived there. It was called Mein Geheimnis (My Secret) and it was a women's romance story magazine written in really easy to understand language. The stories were very cliched and PG rated and I just loved it for its cheesiness. I couldn't find the exact title but I found just what I was after in a shop misleadingly called Woolworth - Meine Liebe Meine Berge (My Love, My Mountains). I spent ages choosing between doctor romance and mountain romance and in the end the mountains won. It's exactly what I was hoping for and I'm looking forward to immersing myself in some cheesy nature themed love stories!

I loved having the opportunity to visit Germany again, even if just for the day, and I really impressed myself with how well the language came back to me. I'm planning to try and keep up with it a bit more (starting with some mountain romance) because learning a different language is definitely a really good way to keep the brain cells active!

Some books I've enjoyed recently

Over the summer I didn't read as much as I usually do. I reached almost the bottom of my to be read pile which was great, but then left me feeling a bit unmotivated when it came to reading! I spent a while browsing the Amazon Prime Reading library and free Kindle books which filled up my Kindle, but most of the books that I read were a little bit uninspiring and repetitive, books read to pass the time rather than to make me think.

Luckily a friend has lent me some books and the ones that I've read so far have been brilliant! The first was The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan. It was described on the cover by India Knight as "A Handmaid's Tale for the 21st Century" which instantly appealed, as The Handmaid's Tale is one of my favourite books. I wasn't disappointed. It's a dystopian tale about women who have been deemed bad mothers and unable to care for their children properly. They are removed from their families and sent to a special institution to see whether they are able to learn the skills that they need to be good mothers and have their children returned to them. It's a gripping story, and one which stayed in my mind long after I'd finished it.

The second was Lullaby by Leila Slimani. Once I started reading I realised that I had read it before, but it was good enough that I wanted to re-read it! Another one about mothers, this is the story of a nanny to a wealthy Parisian family. You already know the outcome from the first few pages, and it's chilling how the story turns from perfection to horror. 

One of the free Kindle books that I did quite enjoy was Woke Up Like This by Amy Lea. It was one of this month's Amazon First Reads, so if you have an Amazon Prime account and a Kindle you can currently download it for free. It's about two 17 year old high school arch-enemies who wake up to find themselves flung into a future when they are 30 and about to get married. It's a very easy light-hearted read in the vein of the film 30 Going On 30, perhaps a little more Young Adult than the books I usually go for but it really entertained me for a little while!

Photo credit César Viteri via Unsplash

Finally I'm going to cheat a bit and add a book that I'm currently reading. Last night I started the new biography Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson. We recently bought a Tesla and we are interested in following the progress of SpaceX but I don't really know much about Elon Musk or his personal story, apart from all the Twitter controversies! I read an excerpt from the biography over the weekend and found it really interesting so I ordered the book, thinking that probably the rest of the family would enjoy reading it too. It's really good! I was reading it for almost three hours solid last night and it's very well written. I'm currently up to around 2007 and learning about the argumentative early days of Tesla and the first unsuccessful rocket launches and I've learned so much about Musk and his companies. I'm not normally a reader of biographies but I'd definitely recommend this one so far. 

What have you been reading lately? I'd love to hear some recommendations!

Settling back to the school routine

A week into the school term, and despite the summer weather it feels as though the holidays never happened! The first week back is always a little unsettled - early starts and the school run along with new timetables, subjects and seating plans, there's always a bit of anxiety all round.

Then I find that I don't know what to do with myself when the children are out of the house! I don't see as much of them at home as I used to, but they are always there somewhere needing snacks and attention. When they first go back to school after a long break at home I find myself wandering aimlessly around the house until I remember all the things that I need to get on with now that they are out of the house!

Mia has started in Year 8, which comes with more homework and higher expectations. Harry is in Year 10 and so is making a start on his GCSE subjects. He's chosen a maths and science route, and I look at his timetable filled with double physics and double further maths and it fills me with horror! But he loves those subjects, and he's really looking forward to delving deeper into some of the more complicated aspects. 

Mia is taking part in the school musical production of Bugsy Malone this term. She doesn't have a major part but children keep dropping out so she has been gradually building up a number of smaller roles! There's a demanding after school rehearsal schedule so Harry works in the library and I can do the school pick up a little later - it makes my day seem so much longer! 

September always feels like a good time for a fresh start, and I have a few projects to work on this month. Getting back on track with the housework, sorting out the garden ready for winter, organising our holiday photos, going through my travel journals, sorting my craft supplies and having a bit of a declutter. All things which came to mind over the summer, and I now have the chance to get round to!

Photo credit Deleece Cook via Unsplash

Organising my Hama beads

I haven't posted any Hama bead crafts for a while have I? That's not because I haven't wanted to craft with my Hama beads, but because I was getting a bit overwhelmed. My love for Hama beads hasn't gone unnoticed among friends and family, and as their children outgrew the beads I became the happy recipient of many large boxes of unsorted beads! In addition to my own supplies, I found that I had a cupboard full, and I couldn't even think about where to start.

Over the summer my niece visited for the day and she enjoyed using some beads which I pulled out for her. So I decided to start by sorting out a box of basic colours for her along with some boards so that she could do some Hama bead crafting at home. I had five massive boxes of unsorted beads, and so this prompted me to finally get down to it and work on sorting out the beads into their individual colours. 

This was a huge job, and it took me several weeks. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of what I began with! I tipped out handfuls onto a large tray and patiently picked through the beads, sorting them out into a variety of plastic cups, beakers and empty food packaging. Anyone around at the time was encouraged to help me out!

I didn't really find any easy way to sort the beads apart from trying to do it during daylight to more easily see subtle colour variations, and making sure I had enough containers for all the different colours. It was actually very relaxing!

I already had some of my Hama beads sorted into plastic storage boxes but the colour selections were haphazard and most sections were too small to fit all the beads I wanted. I also had way more colours than sections. So I emptied out the different boxes and also purchased a new box for the extras. It wasn't enough to hold all my beads but I didn't want to spend too much money so I used sturdy sandwich bags for the more popular colours and tiny plastic bags when I only had a few beads of a particular colour.

It's really satisfying now to see all my beads clearly laid out. I know what colours I have and how many of each colour, so I can plan my craft projects. In particular I have plenty of transparent beads, neon beads, skin tones and red and white beads, so expect to see those cropping up in future blog posts!

Having such a big sort out has really re-ignited by love for this craft, and I'm really looking forward to crafting with Hama beads again!

And if you want to see my Hama bead storage goals have a look at this - Ultimate Hama bead storage - I'd love to splash out on some of these tiny boxes for my Hama beads, I'd just need so many of them!

Our summer holiday 2023

This is a collaborative post

And just like that, September has come around again and the children are back at school!

Weather wise it doesn't feel like September at all, in fact it feels more like the end of the summer term!  The weather this summer was a little disappointing wasn't it, just last week I was out in Brighton wearing a cardigan underneath my thick winter coat. I'm really glad that we are currently enjoying a few warmer days before winter kicks in!

We were lucky enough to get away this summer and enjoyed a fantastic Northern Europe cruise aboard the Disney Dream. The cruise started in Copenhagen and we spent a few days there before sailing back to Southampton via stops in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, The Netherlands and Belgium. We visited Copenhagen for the day on a cruise a few years ago and loved it, so we decided to spend a few (unfortunately rather wet!) days there before the cruise began. 

It was a great itinerary with a really good mixture of smaller towns and larger cities, and we really enjoyed exploring places which were new to us and re-visiting places that we've not been to for years. The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam was a highlight, as was the evening spent sailing back through the North Sea Canal and waving at all the people who had come out to watch us go past. In Fredericia in Denmark we were greeted by the townspeople firing cannons, and several places put on a marching band as we departed. Stockholm in particular was a lovely city and definitely somewhere that I'd like to return for a little longer. And of course a Disney cruise was as magical as always!

At the beginning of the holidays I went to see Blur at Wembley and Pulp in Sheffield on two consecutive weekends which was amazing. They were my two favourite bands as a teenager and I never thought I'd see either one live again. Blur at Wembley was a huge concert, such a brilliant atmosphere. The Pulp venue was much smaller meaning that we had an excellent view of the stage which was great because the staging of the show was perfect, each song had different lighting and projections. I even rocked the vintage Blur and Pulp t-shirts that I still own!

Apart from that the rest of the holidays were fairly quiet. I took Mia out shopping to Hobbycraft a few times, combined with a trip to the café next door for hot chocolate and cake. We had a trip to Monkey World to visit our adopted Kim, and a few playdates. Harry spent a lot of time playing a new computer game that he is obsessed with, it's called Kerbal Space Progam and is the perfect fit for his maths/physics/rockets interests!

A summer highlight was Harry receiving his GCSE result - he achieved a fantastic grade 9 in Computer Science which he took two years early as he has a natural aptitude for and interest in programming. He was mainly self-taught, although he did have some extra help from his computing tutor. We are so proud, I can't believe he's already got a top grade GCSE under his belt at age 14!

Now we are slowly getting back into the school routine. At the time the holiday seemed long but looking back it flew by. It seems like a long slog ahead now until the Christmas break!