(Haarlem, the Netherlands)
On August 21, we finally made it beyond the airport and experienced the actual city of Amsterdam.
Our initial impression was mixed. It was undoubtedly a beautiful city, with the same 17th century prosperity that we saw in other old Dutch cities…just on a larger scale. However, Amsterdam is definitely on the beaten path and we only lasted about 2 blocks on the Damrak before veering off course to avoid the crushing throngs. The situation was made worse by the large number of tourists toting suitcases down narrow sidewalks and the extensive construction/renovation work being done in the same area.
We saw many key sights: the Koninklijk Paleis (Royal Palace), the Begijnhof, the Bloemenmarkt (floating flower market), the Albert Cuypmarkt…and found that the tourist crush eased considerably once we crossed the Keizersgracht canal. Here, we found neighbourhoods where locals still worked, shopped and relaxed. We had a nice lunch, found some appealing specialty shops, and generally just experienced the vibe of an energetic but not frenetic cosmopolitan city. This is the part of Amsterdam that I would like to see again.
There are many renowned Amsterdam sights that we did not see. It would have been nice to see the Rijksmuseum where legendary paintings such as Vermeer’s “Kitchen Maid” and Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” hang, but this had to be weighed against our tolerance for line-ups and crowds. I’m convinced that the major sights in Amsterdam are best seen in the off-season; it was so busy now that the line to see a franchise of Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum (something that is not even Dutch) went all the way down the block and around the corner.
We knew that August 22 would be a rainy day, so we decided to remain in Haarlem and do some indoor tourism. Museums are great for rainy days and we managed to find one that was particularly special.
Teylers Museum was established in 1778 and is the oldest museum in the Netherlands. It is housed in a custom-built building; it is fascinating to see what the museum founders thought was most important at the time. The end result is multi-dimensional, as both the exhibits and the museum itself are on display. I particularly enjoyed looking at the embryonic record players from the 19th century as well as the hoaxes that at one time were accepted as real by the museum.
As the goal of the museum was to capture “all knowledge”, there were also a couple of rooms devoted to art. It was strange to see Dutch scenes that we ourselves had seen in the past two weeks, except that the paintings were made 200 years ago. There was also another “synchronicity” moment: the special exhibition featured 18th century prints from Rome. My wife and I greatly enjoyed picking out all of the sights that we had seen during our Roman trip in March of this year.
We ended our indoor day by visiting a genuine working windmill. The Adriaan mill (see photo at the top of this post) was an iconic symbol of Haarlem before it tragically burned down in 1932. (Family note: “Adriaan” was also the name of the first recorded van der Hout, in the early 1500s.) It was eventually rebuilt and now is back in working order. My wife and I had the same initial reaction: it’s huge! And then, once we saw how the complex parts inside worked: this is an incredible piece of engineering! We were permitted to climb quite high into the structure and walk around the balcony that surrounded it several floors above the ground.
We quite enjoyed being tourists in Haarlem; it won’t be a tragedy if we spend another day here before returning to Canada!