the World is more than the Sum of its Parts
The trip starts in Frankfurt am Main — taking the train down from Berlin — and ends in Amsterdam, with a train ride back to Berlin. It won’t be a hardcore cycling adventure. No rush, no pressure. Just a slow-paced journey with plenty of rest days, time to explore cities along the way, and long, unhurried breaks out in nature. It’s all about taking it easy and enjoying the ride.
When the Nazis occupied the Netherlands in 1940, approximately 140,000 Jews lived in the country. From 1941 until 1944, 107,000 of them, along with 255 Sinti and Roma, were deported by the Germans. Only 5,200 Jews and 30 Sinti survived.
There is a memorial in the heart of Amsterdam, consisting of more than 100,000 bricks, with each brick bearing the name of a victim. Among them is the name Anna Frank—Anne Frank—as she was a resident of Amsterdam. The many bricks are topped with massive mirror constructions that visually connect the memorial to the outside world. Finally, the four bodies formed by the bricks, seen from above, represent the Hebrew word לזכר (Lezachar), which means “in memory.”
This deeply symbolic place was designed by Daniel Libeskind, the American architect who also conceptualized the Jewish Museum in Berlin. It is a solemn site, filled with respect for the individuality of the victims and a strong appeal to the present.
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