Haarlem
A mere 30 minute bus ride from our home near Schipol airport brought us to Haarlem, one of the many reminders of New York's Dutch origins. During our stay we also came across Flushing and Breukelen (Brooklyn). Still no word on who we have to thank for Ronkonkoma. In the interest of brevity, I will just mention the highlights of our visit. First and foremost, the Frans Hals museum . This is why we went to Haarlem and it certainly did not disappoint. It is housed in a former house for the poor, where Frans Hals, in fine starving artist tradition, reputedly spent some time. Along with his work, there are paintings from several other Dutch masters from the region on display. This is also where we acquired our new best friend, the Museum Card. For 40 euro each, we got id cards which get us into almost every museum in the Netherlands for an entire year! Even better, the Museum card is not advertised anywhere tourists might hear about it (we learned about it from ...