Haarlem, You're A Gem!

Day 2.5, I wanted to escape the crowds and found myself with many options. Do I rent a bike and ride out to Ouderkerk as suggested by a local bike renter? Do I ride a bike out to the beach? Maybe to Haarlem? Maybe out to Zaanse Schans, a village of windmills? I ended up taking the bus out to windmill village and then hopped the train to Haarlem. I arrived early enough to Zaanse Schans to avoid the large group tour buses which is at its best. The shops in the village aren't open yet at this hour (before 9am) but you get the morning peace to yourself and see the farm animals at its glory feeding in the fields. Windmills in a field, it's so Tour de France like! After an hour or so in this windmill village, I hopped the train to Haarlem and instantly fell in love!

Haarlem is a gem. While everything in Amsterdam is in your face, in Haarlem, you have to seek the details of the charm. It has quaint streets, a vibrant but low key town square and my favorite were the floral adorned quaint residential streets. The square packs your typical bit hits: museum, a couple of churches and a formal hall of sorts. This town's St Bavo church houses a beautiful massive organ that a young Mozart played on in 1766. The age of history in Europe still baffled my mind. While the town square is low key inviting, the residential
streets own the charm of this town. Nearly each door had a bike in front of it. Folks of all ages live here but it's the older women congregating on their bikes in front of door steps speaking with such succinct enthusiasm that made me smile. They would end every sentence with a "looo".... helloooo... good day-ooo. This little town packed a character that I consumed fully. 

What I enjoy most about Europe is the ease of train and bus travel! All in all, my time in the Netherlands did not disappoint and I remembered how much I love travel in Europe. The Dutch are kind and always so gracious when I ask for directions. Yes, even the sort of creepy gentleman that stopped me in the streets insisting on helping me get to where I wanted to go because I had a map in my mind and went on to insist that I was must be "rich" because I live in San Francisco. Is that the reputation we have?! Everyone in general have been extremely helpful and so nice! They want to get you to your destination as much as you want to get there. Every time I've asked a train info person which platform I should go to for a certain destination just to make sure, they always look me in the eye and succinctly say "It leaves in X minutes." A thought I had most often while strolling through Haarlem is if I could live as efficiently as these locals. Their residences here are quaint and small but efficient. Nothing is oversized here, unlike home where it seems that the bigger it is, the better it must be. I don't follow that norm much... perhaps I was European in my past life!