Recently I took a 7-week walkabout to 12 cities in Europe. The first stop on my journey was the Haarlem and Amsterdam area of The Netherlands. I chose to stay in Haarlem because it is a beautiful town that is much lower key, and only a 15-minute train ride to Amsterdam. The tourist area of Haarlem – the older part of town – is about a 1.25 x 1.25 mile square so you can easily walk to all areas. From Schiphol airport, I picked up the #300 bus, which dropped me off at the Harlem Central Train Station, about a 10-minute walk to my hotel.
Haarlem, NL, not to be confused with Harlem, NY (originally Nieuw Haarlem, a Dutch outpost founded in 1658), is a medieval era town with historic buildings, cobblestone streets, canals, and few cars. Simple bicycles (no need for multiple gears due to the flat terrain) and walking are the favored mode of transportation. Subtle pattern differences in the cobblestone sidewalks denote the bike lanes, so be careful not to stop in the middle of one as I did when trying to get my bearings when I arrived. The kind person who almost hit me patiently pointed out the not so obvious bike lane. After 10 am, there are very few cars, so the streets are filled with walkers strolling along.
In the central area, shops and restaurants with outdoor dining occupy the first floor of the buildings, with apartments, hotels, and offices above. The whole vibe is to relax, eat, stroll around, and enjoy your time there. My hotel (Ambassador City Centre Hotel) was right around the corner from Grote Markt – the big market square with the old town hall – and I could see the Grote Kerk Cathedral from my hotel window.
The highlight of my trip was a visit to Keukenhof Gardens, which is the famous tulip garden. The tourist information office in Haarlem sells tickets and the local bus to Lisse stops at the gardens. The bus travels through other towns and the countryside, making the gardens an easy place to visit and giving me a glimpse of local life along the way.
The garden exhibit only runs for 7-8 weeks each spring when the tulips and daffodils are in bloom. I was there on a sparkling day and the colors were brilliant! The area is huge, with all different styles of plantings and plenty of paths and places to sit to enjoy the view. I spent about three hours walking about – just in awe at the beauty.
The next two days I took the train into Amsterdam. On the first day, I walked all over, getting a flavor for the city with it’s canals, museum park, Vondel park, red light district, trams, street markets, and amazing architecture. On the second day, I went to the Rijksmuseum taking one of the crazy trams from the train station. The trams twist and turn as they move down the streets like a snake, making the ride an adventure in itself.
Bicycles are everywhere! Most of the bikes are a standard simple design, but what people attach to those bikes is fascinating. There are deep wheelbarrow type containers that attach and extend beyond the front wheel for carrying supplies or kids. Many bikes have little seats on the bikes themselves for young children and I saw a couple of newborn style car seats attached to the fronts of bikes. People use all sorts of bags, baskets, and panniers, both affixed and not. Finally, you see every sort of trailer imaginable. Notably missing are bike helmets and special biking clothes. When they get to their destination, people just leave their bike in the sea of bikes, mostly unlocked, at every destination. Biking is as laid back as everything else in this area.
The Rijksmuseum has an amazing collection dedicated to Dutch art and history from the middle ages to the present day. The highlight was the special exhibit called All the Rembrandts. It started with Rembrandt’s early attempts at drawing, which were a series of hundreds of very small sketches of his self portraits with different hats and expressions. These early drawings were rough and frankly not very good. But he persisted and began to draw small sketches of people and animals, which began to improve over time and gives an interesting glimpse into Dutch life in the 17th century. As he matured, Rembrandt evolved into the master of faces and emotion that he is famous for. For me the exhibit was a reminder that behind those masterful works of art we see in the museum, are years and years of practice, trial and error, and hard work.
A word about the museums in Amsterdam. I was lucky to have purchased a ticket online well before my visit at the urging of one of my sons who had been to the museum. When I later tried to get tickets to the Van Gogh and Anne Frank museums, the tickets were sold out. So, if you are visiting Amsterdam, go online and order your tickets early.
Each day after the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam, I returned to bucolic Haarlem to enjoy long walks, picnics in the park, and watching people from all cultures enjoying this beautiful area. I would go back there in a heartbeat!
Next stop – Hamburg, Germany!
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