Old Haarlem & Amsterdam

Day 1

Our hotel, the Amadeus, was right there hiding in plain sight.  On the square, within spitting distance of the church with the massive organ where Mozart once played.  History surrounds me.

Following TripAdvisor’s advice, lunch was “the best frites in Haarlem.”  Not sure the label fits, but the frites were freshly fried, served in a traditional paper cone for takeaway.  I opted for mayo (rich and oddly sweet) in lieu of ketchup.  When in Haarlem, eh?

Lost the afternoon to a nap.  Dinner was an authentic Dutch place, Balletje, known for its meatballs.  Imagine an oven-ready personal casserole containing a massive meatball (beef, chicken, or veggie), choice of sauce (Dutch gravy for me), atop a choice of potato with mix-ins (red cabbage + crispy diced apple for me).  Comfort food, filling.  The beer also a bit unusual.  Trappist brew, mildly brown, also just a touch sweet.

Day 2 — Amsterdam after breakfast.

I had a short list of things to see in Amsterdam.  Go by (somewhat ambivalent about going in) the Anne Frank house (huis).  Visit the Homomonument, a monument to long-persecuted LGBT people.  Visit the West India House (West-Indisch Huis) where the Dutch West India Company decided in 1625 to establish New Amsterdam.  At least one of my DNA ancestors worked for the WIC before their bankruptcy or near-bankruptcy.  He decided to emigrate with his family to New Amsterdam in 1655.

We found the Anne Frank house surrounded by a mob of people.  The Homomonument was less populated, partly because it is so well hidden albeit right out in the open on a square on a busy corner by a canal.

No one was at the West-Indisch Huis.  The exterior walls appear contemporary but I barged through some open doors into an inner courtyard and found the exterior walls of the old building, the surprisingly petite statue of Peter Stuyvesant (erstwhile Governor of New Amsterdam), and a sweet plaque commemorating American-Netherlands collaboration in renovating and preserving the old building.  It is still in use, housing, among other things, the John Adams Institute.

After much walking, canal peaking, and narrowly averted bicycle crashes, we returned to Haarlem in late afternoon.

A note about public transport is in order here.  Sigh.

Would that the U.S. had even a fraction of the transport options that exist in Europe.  We took an easy (every 6 minutes easy) bus from the airport to Haarlem.  One thing that made it so efficient was that it appeared to operate on a dedicated roadway (busway?) that ran parallel to the autoway.  In places where it crossed dedicated bikeways, railroad-style arms came down to block the bicyclists’ path from the bus.

To get from Haarlem to Amsterdam we took a train, a “Sprinter,” which inexplicably is a tiny bit slower than the “Intercity” line.  Regardless, it’s a 15-20 minute trip.  Through lovely green countryside, horses, cows, sheep, and one IKEA.

On the other hand, navigation within cities is difficult.  Old, old street systems resemble spaghetti in their curvature and interweavings.  But we got there, every time ... eventually.

The big 16th century church in Haarlem.

I’m not much one for churches, but this one has some interesting features.  A massive, massive organ — pipes reaching 30 meters high.  When I arrived, someone was playing bits and pieces.  They may have been practicing.  I hung around simply hoping that they would play something start to finish.  Never happened.

Except for the wooden portion in the middle, the floor is paved with grave markers, front to back.  Some of the stained glass is very simple, with panes in geometric patterns.  The most recent edition (2000s) is very modern but beautiful and takes nothing away from the old.  The vaulted ceiling is wood, except for the intersection of the transept (? never sure about these churchy terms).  That part is gloriously, but simply, painted.

Impressions

This country has a bazillion bicycles, and not a few motorbikes.  I can’t imagine trying to negotiate a roadway within a large city in this country by any conveyance navigated by me.  See spaghetti, above.  Bicycles come plain, with front-facing boxes, with boxes with tents, with all sorts of boxes actually.  Many are wooden, a few plastic.  The Dutch have been very inventive in their designs for bicycles that will carry a variety of things, from children to inanimate cargo.  I don’t think I ever saw a single bike with a child on the rear, American-style.

Even that which is old looks shockingly new in these two Dutch cities.  Everything just appears to be in such good repair, and that which is not appears to be undergoing renovation.  I guess that’s how you keep history going.

Amsterdam, especially, is crowded.  Very, very crowded.  I’ll blame the tourists.  I’ve been to New York, San Francisco, London (many times), and Paris.  I don’t think I've ever been in a city that rivals Amsterdam for crowded.  That was unexpected.  I wonder what it’s like during winter?