First Trip to Europe Part 6- Haarlem, Netherlands

We arrived in Haarlem around 3:30 in the afternoon. We walked from the train station to the B&B we were staying at called Where Els. This was a wonderful place to stay, we had two full bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen and a courtyard and free beer in the fridge. My husband has since decided that Jopen Hoppenbier (recipe from 1501) is his new favorite beer and is trying to figure out how to get it in the US! It was located on one of those lovely side streets of Haarlem that had grape vines growing up the walls and bikes only. It was located between the train station and the central square so the location was excellent. That first night we simply strolled around the town visited the free archeology museum on the main square and ate dinner at the pizza place recommend by RS which we all enjoyed.
The next morning, we got breakfast at the local cheese shop that made the best croissants topped with cheese and ham. I’m hungry just thinking about it! We then toured the Grote Kerk and again the RS tour in his book was invaluable in making sense of it. The boys really liked the floor being made up of graves and the line “stinking rich” that RS mentions. I enjoyed the cannonball in the wall and learning about what it represented. From there we went and did a tour of the Corrie Ten Boom House. This was a great experience for us and our kids. It is totally free, the tour guide we had had actually been a child in WWII and talked about eating tulip bulbs in the winter of 45 and the experience of liberation. Even better, she allowed our boys to not only go in the hiding place but also to pull the pulley to open up the small passage and allowed them to climb through. They were standing in the hiding place as the docent talked about how the 6 people who were there stood there for 2 and a half days in the dark with no food while the Germans tried to starve them out. I know the Anne Frank House is a very powerful experience, but this was just right for where my boys were age wise and the both gained a lot from it. I personally had loved the book, The Hiding Place, when I was in middle school so this was a pilgrimage of sorts for me and it surpassed my expectations.
We then ate lunch at one of the may café’s in the center square. My initial plan was to then take a train to Amsterdam to visit a museum or see the canals, but the boys finally had hit their limit of “culture and learning” so instead we took the 10-minute train ride to Zandvoort and spent a sunny beautiful afternoon on the beaches of the North Sea eating ice-cream and playing in the sand. We went back to Haarlem for dinner and had a delicious and unique experience eating at De Lachende Javaan. The boys thought this was the best meal we had in Europe. It was a great final dinner to our European experience.
The next day we walked to the train station, took a local train to Schipol and went through security etc.to get on our plane back to the US. By far my boys least favorite part of the trip is how long you have to wait at airports. This this is when an I-pad and kindle save the day in this family. On our drive home from the airport, when we crossed the WV state line we played Country Roads by John Denver because that is home.