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 a local), so we felt very in-the-know everytime we whipped it out. Next highlight, a windmill. We were still relatively new to the Netherlands, so this was quite a big deal. As time went by, we would still point them out to each other from passing buses, trains, etc. but with noticably less enthusiam. Next: the Grote Kerk van St. Bavo, a beautiful Gothic cathedral located (as they usually are) in the Grote Markt, the town's main square. The cathedral's claim to fame is its Muller organ (pictured above), which was played by both Handel and a 10 year old Mozart. Lucky for us, there was an classical music recital on the organ that very evening. We just had to find a way to kill the three hours between museum closings and recital. Easy enough, we found an outdoor cafe and indulged in some local beer and cheeses (a pattern had already been formed). Problem is by the time the recital began, we were both buzzed and sated. I was feeling terribly guilty that I could not keep my eyes open, that is, until I started looking around the room and noticed that everyone else had had 3 hours to kill as well and a good third of the room was nodding off. After that, I just opted to view it as a very cultural, yet well-deserved, nap time.