17th September 2018 Haarlem, Netherlands

Hi Dear Folk,

Our first port of call Ijmuiden, Netherlands; which is seaside port, with a sailboat harbour.  Jean and I had decided we would go our own way here, so caught the local bus into Haarlem.  We have had experience of public transportation before in Holland and it is very good.

We got off the bus in the centre of Haarlem, making sure of where to catch the bus back.

Didn't really have an agenda of what we wanted to see, except for finding Jean a raincoat, because she forgot hers as we walked out of her house to catch the train.

It was a beautiful day.

You can take a canal tour here, if one had the time.

Haarlem is meant to be one of the best towns in Holland for shops.  There were a lot, but we found them to be expensive, at least for us.

We were here on a Monday but every Saturday they have a large market in this central square.

Grote Markt with a view of the Grote Kirk, built in the 14th century.  In the church is an organ that dates back to 1738 and a young Mozart played on it.  Around the church are a number of what were houses and shops, attached to the church, but are now all shops.  They made life an integral part of the church.

Above we can see the front of the old meat market building.

This building formerly housed the meat market.

Here is the Hudson Bay Company store, where Jean was able to find a mack.  It's interesting because these stores were to be found in Norway too, such a British colonial name, but no Hudson Bay Stores in the UK.  Not that we know of.

Jean's mack was on sale half price and that just about made it into our price range.  It was a nice style and different.  You will see it a lot in our photos as it rained every day in Norway.

We only had an afternoon, so not a lot of time.  After our walk around we went for a cold beer and joined the ranks of people watchers.  It was lovely to sit in that square and we could have stayed longer, just soaking up the ambience of actually being there.

Jean and I love Holland it would be one of the countries we would like to live in.  Organized and clean.  Even very run of the mill apartment buildings with balconies, and they have many like that in the UK, but they look so different because the windows are clean and sparkle, the balconies are filled with flowers and not all old junk.  At least what we saw riding through the burbs on the bus.

This is the hotel cafe we sat outside of.

I think being a Monday it was quite quiet in town.

I love that you can ride a bike almost anywhere, totally appeals to me.

One has to be very careful in crossing the road in Holland.  In fact a passenger on our ship on our last day in Rotterdam, stepped off the bus and didn't look and was knocked over by a bicycle and taken to hospital.

This is how it goes.  Pedestrian pavement, bike path and small mopeds, pedestrian pavement, tram lines, pedestrian pavement, road in both directions, then the above vice versa.  You really do need to be careful when you are not used to this.

Holland has never disappointed us.

Christine