2016.05.19 - A Day in Haarlem, The Netherlands

Yesterday I took a train only a couple of stops to the town of Haarlem in the Netherlands. The weather wasn’t good and I am still traveling by myself, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. After arriving at the train station and orienting myself towards the city center (centrum), I walked as quickly as possible to the Grote Kerk van,  St. Bavo (or Great Church of St Bavo) and ducked inside out of the drizzle. I paid the 2.50 Euro entrance fee and seated myself on a simple wooden chair.

The view was breathtaking. The stained glass, the ceiling, the immense columns, the nearly 100 foot high organ that was played by Mozart as a child. The church was beautifully constructed between 1370 and 1538 and it really was a grand place of worship.

The famous organ played by both Mozart and Handel

This old church doubled as an old cemetery. The entire floor was covered in over 1500 grave stones. Citizens of the town built the church and simultaneously made up the foundation. I walked around to stay warm. The cold stones and tall ceilings have a way of ensuring cathedrals are cold even on the hottest of days. This is a far more pleasing characteristic when one finds themselves inside a cathedral much closer to the equator.

Eventually I sat back down to look at my map. The wooden chairs seemed so simple compared to the grandeur of the building. Their plainness seemed out of place. I guess chairs don’t need to be fancy to be important. Should the building collapse tomorrow, I guarantee the chairs would be replaced far more quickly than the columns.

Enough about chairs, my apologies. Here are some oddities far more interesting than chairs.

In the Dutch imagination of 1499, this is what a pelican looked like.

In the olden days had longer fur and more
exposed breasts in church...apparently.

And Europe had monkeys which went to church and ate belts.

And this part is true: "In the Middle Ages, a dog-whipper's task
was to discipline unruly dogs and to maintain order in the church."
I can't help but wonder why unruly dogs were allowed in church?

After spending a well over an hour in the church, I stopped at a popular eatery that only sold freshly made fries (or Vlaamse Frites as they are called here). The Dutch seem to love their fries and there are shops that exclusively sell this food all over the place. They are not however, eaten plain. No, no! When one orders fries, they also choose a condiment from a long menu of condiments. This sauce is then slathered generously on the top of the fries and the entire mess is eaten with a tiny (not overly useful) fork. The most common condiment here is a sweet mayonnaise. For the sake of tradition, I ate this combo for lunch, although I probably won’t do so again because really, if I am going to eat that many calories in one setting, I can think of infinitely more appealing ways to do so.

Lots of sauce options for fries.

This was the small. Seriously.

I ended my day at the Frans Hals museum where I wandered around and looked at paintings for an hour and a half. Last week, I prepared for the Vermeer museum by learning about Vermeer and this week, I did the same for Frans Hals. I watched a few Youtube videos on the artist including a wonderful, hour-long lecture at Yale. I have said this before, but THIS is the way to see art museums. I appreciated every brilliant brush stroke today because I actually knew why they were brilliant.

Frans Hals

An ancient travel book. Basically a precursor to Lonely Planet. 

When the museum closed, I stopped for Haarlem's famous Jopen beer which was small and expensive, but good.

Haarlem's Jopen beer.

A canal in Haarlem

Then, I walked back to the station in the rain. In the warm train, I flew past rainy, cow-speckled Dutch farms. Once back in Leiden, I alternated between trudging and rushing through the rain on the long walk back to Michael’s flat.

I arrived cold and exhausted and kinda wishing I had a travel partner again. Of course my friend only left last week and I must give myself time to find someone else. I take heart in the fact that I have never ended a trip alone. In the meantime, I will keep busy, see the world, take some pictures and keep this journal.