A few more notes on Haarlem

A Few More Notes on Haarlem

The last week could be described as a Haarlem-Belgium sandwich. Besides a few hours in a Citizen M or sitting on a train or bus, I have either been either in Haarlem, Brussels, or Antwerp. More on the last two soon.

But I'm very much hoping that Delta and KLM have a healthy flight option between PDX and AMS because that means more opportunities to hang out in places like Haarlem. Haarlem is not Amsterdam. It is a place with heritage, but also seems like a pretty nice place to live. I met some art tour organizers in Brussels who indicated how desirable it was to live there for many in the region.

Haarlem is a hard town to get lost in, but at the same time one where there is something to discover or consider every few hundred yards or so. Sure there is the Teyners and Hals museums, places worthy of visits on returning trips in future years. But there is a good vibe to the place. Farmers and antique markets rotate in the area a block away from the V & D, which seems kind of like and extension of la tG Grot Klerk, the town square. Besides V & D has a great cafes on the ground floor and an affordable and excellent restaurant on the sixth floors which also features a terrace where one can have a good meal and really get a sense of how the town and its canals evolved.

That big view is great, but so the one from the canal level is pretty outstanding as well. I think we must have traveled under about half of the sixty six Haarlem bridges during a one hour tour. One was so low hanging that the top of the cruise boat actually touched once or twice. That one known as the Spider bridge because of the hundreds of eight legged beasts that hatch there in late spring is sometimes not accessible to tour bus, but only once or twice per year during some of the dam regulating measures.

All I know is that if I had kept my head outside the moon roof of the boat as we passed under many of the bridges, I would not be sitting here writing this. The seasoned captain of the boat knows that folks are looking around and may not see what is ahead of them was really doing her job when she'd let us know that it was time to put our heads below.

The tour was also an opportunity to see how the canal system was created to support and enhance Haarlem's brewing industry in the 17th century. Evidence of Spanish, Roman and French influences, particularly in the town's religious life were also evident on the tour. But the thing I really liked was being able to see one of the tunnels under the bridge that was used to evade Nazis during WWII. I looked at one of the elderly Dutch men on the tour and said ''like in the movie." He smiled at me like he got what I meant.

I also had a chance to visit the St Bavo Church. The church organist was in full practice on an organ that Mozart once played. The place has buttresses but a wood roof because the city fathers ran out of money. Regardless, the place was cold enough to store meat. If I was in a spirtual crisis, the last place I want to be hanging out is such a cold and forbidding place.

I need to try to get a nap in before the series of plane checkins just a few hours away.