(Sunday, Sept. 27) So, there are 25 million bikes, 10 million cars, 5 million trams and buses, and 172 million pedestrians vying for space in Amsterdam.
So today we decided to leave the Big City and go off to Haarlem, a much smaller town, only 20 minutes’ train ride (but about an hour door-to-door from our hotel) away. All was quiet in the block between our hotel and the tram stop. But there were plenty of passengers when we hopped on the #5 tram on its way to the main train station, and by the time we’d reached cheap-backpacker-hotel-and-tourist-restaurant-haven around Leidsplein, the tram was like one fully packed sardine can of riders and their luggage. Just taking a deep breath was hard, and the 70ish local sitting across from Cindy wondered if he’d even be able to fight his way through the Wall of Living Flesh to get off at the next stop.
When we reached the Central Station, the tram emptied out like a 30-gallon can being dumped into a garbage truck on pick-up day. We tried without success to use our credit and debit cards to buy tickets to Haarlem, but the quick, efficient and friendly train station staff promptly issued 2nd class (hey, why ride in First for 20 minutes and many more Euros?) tickets to us for our trip.\
When we reached platform #1, we asked the train guy (he turned out to be the engineer) if his train was going to Haarlem (“Yes”), and then asked if our tickets were really for 2nd class (“I can’t tell, you’ve got them upside down”; yes, they were 2nd class). Within a few minutes after leaving Amsterdam we saw a windmill and were into the countryside. Not long after that we reached Haarlem’s turn of the century Art Deco station.
It seemed like the entire town was still in bed when we walked the first few blocks from the station towards the “Zentrum" (town center). We saw a few joggers, but didn’t pay them much heed. Then about a block away from the main town square we saw clouds of balloons floating far up in the sky, and heard excited announcements being made over a PA system. What the heck was going on?
As we turned the corner into the square, we discovered that a big-time 21 km footrace was afoot. Runners flashed by “live and in person” in front of the crowd and “live” on a big Jumbo-Tron TV screen. Kids as well as adults were in the race. I tried without much luck to find a good vantage point to shoot photos, but when I finally got to the edge of the racecourse, the winners were appearing on the Jumbo-Tron to claim their prizes, and the racing seemed to be over. Nevertheless, over the next hour or so we saw runners doing stretches, pining number badges on their T-shirts, and running in both directions in a circuit around the large church that predominates the central part of the old town, suggesting that events were still taking place.
We retired to a ring-sided seat on the far side of the racecourse to have an al fresco lunch, enjoying the mostly sunny, high 60’s weather, along with a crowd that seemed to be almost entirely Dutch. (As has been the case throughout our trip, every once in a while we here the familiar twang of American English, but not often, especially today).
After lunch we walked to the main canal surrounding Haarlem, but discovered that the tour boats were fully booked for Sunday afternoon “tea” cruises, so we sought out a venue that we’d seldom visited this trip: An art museum. Most of us think of Rembrandt as the foremost Dutch portrait painter, but Frans Hals was “The Guy to Go To” for your likeness during the 17th century. The small museum which features his work, as well as that of earlier and later painters, is a little gem tucked away in a Haarlem side street. It was a quiet and thoughtful place to spend part of the afternoon, and we were so intrigued by the interesting (although longish) video about Hals and his contemporaries, that we almost bought it to take home.
The streets that we strolled through before and after our visit to the museum were full of closed shops, art galleries, and restaurants. Unlike Amsterdam, which still teems like a mad beast on Sundays, Haarlem almost completely shuts down. It was a great place to “chill out”, even if only for a few hours, before he headed back to Gotham-City-Netherlands to end our day.
Amsterdam’s Central Station was jammed with travelers returning to or leaving town when we got back there at 5:20 pm. And the city’s tourist Meccas were still crowded as we rode the tram back to our hotel.
When we travel and find a decent restaurant for dinner, we tend to return to it, especially if we’re foot-weary from a hard day of sightseeing. Se tonight we went back to “Orient”, just five minutes’ walk or less from our hotel, for another big helping of various Indonesian dishes before turning in for the night.
