Hangin' in Haarlem

Yesterday we took a little day trip to Haarlem, which is just a 15-minute train ride from Amsterdam.

We arrived around 11:15, and the town still seemed sleepy as we walked to the city center, but that allowed us to have the streets all to ourselves!

I told him to stand in front of the canal and look pretty. This is what I got.

The city center, called Grote Markt, is huge! In the center is a large, 15th-century Gothic-style church called St. Bravo’s Church. Surrounding the church are all sorts of cafes and a little shopping market.

We decided to take a self-guided tour of the church, and it was pretty interesting! Two especially interesting tidbits is that Mozart played the church's organ at 10 years old. And second, the entire floor within the church are gravestones, with the oldest grave dating back to the 16th century. So…the church is most likely haunted…

Ceiling

"Peace and Harmony" stained glass window

Gravestone

Gravestone

A "pelican"

The pipe organ, which Mozart played

After visiting the church, we walked over to see one of the city’s windmills, Molen de Adriaan. It is no longer working, but it was originally used for milling tobacco and grains. It burned to the ground in 1932, but has since been rebuilt, and it is now a museum.

After checking out the windmill, we made our way back to Grote Markt for some lunch and people-watching.

Taking notes

View from the cafe where we had lunch

As we ate lunch, we figured we wanted to see another museum since there were a few that struck our interest: a house that formerly hid Jewish refugees from the Nazis, the oldest museum in the Netherlands, and a Dutch Art museum. Unfortunately, most museums are closed on Mondays, including all 3 of these. Major fail on our end! We were pretty bummed, but we figured we can come back again if we wanted to.


So, instead we did a little more exploring of the city, and hung out at a park until we were ready to go home.

Overall, Haarlem is a charming and quaint city! It is much smaller than Amsterdam, and it makes for a perfect day trip. I really wish at least one of the three museums we wanted to see were open, but maybe next time!