Up. Minimal coffee. No breakfast. We take the tram to the Centraal Station and top off our travel cards. We get on our train, on to the upper level of train for a better view. We're not in a silent car and miss it. Haarlem is just a short 15 minute train ride away. There is one single stop on the way: Amsterdam Sloterdijk
The 15 minute train ride passes quickly. The Haarlem train station is typical, a cavernous glass topped tunnel through which four or six trains can be processed at once. Off the train we head out into the bright sunshine and blue sky of the day. Liz has found a supposedly great breakfast spot: The Hive. Their motif is a bee hive and all of their imagery and menu item names follow that theme. The coffee is awesome and the food is delicious and artistically arranged on a long wooden board. The service is provided in English with a big smile.
Caffeinated and satiated we continue on to a big, no make that huge, cathedral for which (in part) Haarlem is famous. We can climb to the top of the tower for 3 euros each or get a guided tour of the whole cathedral, and climb the tower for 16 euros. Being cheap we opt for just the tower. There are two people already headed up. We’ll make six. The host says she’ll cap it at that.
The spiral staircase is big enough for one person at a time. It’s one way. That is, you climb down the same route you went up. If you meet someone who is coming down, when you’re going up, you’re both in trouble. There’s no banister, so we cling to the walls and center stone column for dear life. Thankfully none of us encounter anyone else during our trip up or down. Karen counts as she climbs and there are 280 steps to the top. There are stops along the way: places to get out and catch your breath. This was apparently storage ‘back in the day’. One of the stops is at the clock level. There’s a clock on each of the four sides of the square tower and they’re all fed by one mechanism. It is interesting how one mechanism can feed four clocks.
On top of the tower we can see to the sea to the west and to Amsterdam to the east. We are way up high. It’s a great view but in the back of our minds we’re thinking of the hike back down the stone steps ahead of us (and our aching legs). Eventually we’re back on terra firma, thankful for no mishaps.
We wander some more and grab some delicious snacks at a nearby bakery. We feel we’ve earned it for the climb up and down the tower. We head for the center of Haarlem. Along the way we see a kid’s playground with parents and young children having a blast. One of the pieces of equipment is a small low merry-go-round powered by the riders themselves. Each kid is, in essence, on a very small ‘bike’ with pedals. The Dutch obviously indoctrinate the kids early in the ways of bike riding.
The town has cute streets with houses decked out in flowering shrubs and vines. There are cute shops on the ground floor and the classic, narrow Dutch style houses above. The streets are mostly pedestrian / bike only, and there aren’t too many of either of those. We stop into a few shops, looking for tea, coffee, bike jerseys, and used books.
Around lunchtime we find ourselves in the big main square with it’s other big church. The Irish pub where we were hoping to eat doesn’t open til four, so we opt for a nearby good looking brasserie. They have beer and promising sounding food, so we install ourselves and start ordering. The sun bakes us, but it feels good after the cool days prior. The food’s good for what we ordered (cheese chili dog, tuna melt, …). We top off lunch with yummy ice cream cones and walk along the big canal to their big, famous windmill.
Finally it’s time to take the 15 minute train ride back to Amsterdam. We have a canal tour with wine and cheese that we do not want to miss. At the train station we figure out where we’ll be catching the high speed train to Paris in the morning and where we’ll be getting our refund for the remaining funds on our train card.
We check in for our canal cruise. It’s a short wait, which we use to 'people watch' and make fun of the tourists. We’re sure they’re doing the same with us.
Eventually we get on our boat. There are four tables with bench seats in back and the roof fully opened to the gorgeous spring weather. There are four wine glasses and four water glasses per table, two big bowls of mixed nuts, cheese crisps and two packs of cheese, four kinds of Gouda, each pack more than enough for two people. We try to guess the cheese flavors. There’s the regular Gouda, caraway Gouda, Pesto Gouda and some bright white Gouda. They’re fine, but we really like the Chardonnay they were serving and worked overtime to be well hydrated by drinking the wine constantly during the tour.
Of the things we learned one that stuck with us was that 12,000 bikes are retrieved from the canals of Amsterdam every year. Our short, young, smiling server girl reluctantly tells us she’s from Russia. We’re sure she’s not personally responsible for anything going on in the Ukraine now. We float past the Hermitage museum of Amsterdam, with its museum name prominently plastered across the front. We’re told that after the recent actions of Russia the museum broke ties with the more famous Hermitage and mailed back all the works of art they had on loan. They’re currently figuring out how to change the name of the museum.
Finally off the canal booze cruise we weave our way through the throngs of tourists near the Amsterdam Central Station in the direction of our dinner. Again Liz and Mike found this restaurant and are navigating us there. We seem to be headed into a residential area with few, if any, businesses. Around the last corner a small tapas bistro appears with tables on the water. When we say ‘on the water’, it’s almost really on the water. We were warned about putting our day packs too close to the edge of the dock, and we thankfully comply.
Dinner, with sangria, was awesome. We have the small plates and everything was delicious. We get the calamari, but rather than being deep fried it was gently sautéed, and it was heavenly… very tender and tasty. As the evening wore on we run out of sangria and the vote was three to one against getting another carafe. Probably for the best.
We walk home and wind up going through some very cool looking neighborhoods (Joordan) with cute little shops and bistros. We’ll be back. With the weather so nice we see lots of hipsters milling about socializing, drinking and dining. Eventually we’re back home and crash after a long day of walking and drinking. Thank goodness every day isn’t like this one!
Photos
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