Thoughts about Holland vol.7.
Haarlem
2006.07.22.
Today I decided to go to Haarlem after a big hesitation, 'cause I couldn't decide if I wanted to go to Groningen, Utrecht or to Amsterdam again. Then came the saviour idea, Haarlem.
Probably first associations are connected to Harlem, which is part of New York (and not the nicest..). Well as you may know New York was founded by the Dutch in 1613 and was called New Amsterdam earlier on. Then came the brits in 1664 (alright I had to look this up, I am not a walking history book after all....) and called it New York after the count of York. Funny..
Ok so Haarlem, well this is the fifth biggest city in the Netherlands, so it is fairly big (compared to Delft), and it is 15 mintues away from Amsterdam to the west, so that means it is 40 minutes by train from Delft to the north. I took a lot of notes, because so often something came into my mind, and somehow I just like to make sure that I don't forget things. That's why i am writing a diary.
On the way I saw several flower fields, and even though they were not as impressive as they probably are during the spring it was still nice view from the train. I discovered that at the moment they are growing heather, daffodils and gladiolus (kardvirág in hun). The other thing I discovered during my stay here, that they use every little square meter of land for something useful, even if it ends up to place an industrial park right beside small weekend huts. Everything seems so peaceful as if this was the best way to arrange lands. At least it seems so.
Haarlem is really a romantic place. I just simply loved it! The streets, the houses, the shops, the cafés, everything!! (even the coffee shops look nice, too bad I still refuse pot..) So this was a good decision of mine, as I arrived to the Grote Markt, the main market place I saw that there is a market going on, it was just so nice, because there weren't any tourists except me, so I could really get a breeze of their lifestyle. On the market square you see the Stadhuis, the city hall, which is a really impressive building already, but then you turn back and discover the Vleeshal (former meat market), which is even more impressive, and only then you see the Sint Bavo Kerk, or as they simply call it Grote Kerk. Big it is for such a small town once Haarlem could be.
You know there was a separate bell tower for the church, because the church had to be able to ring ten different tones, and the place was not enough for so many types of bells. Because the bells were ringing for example to warn the people that an execution is going on at the scaffold at the city hall; or when the city gates were closing, but my favourite is that they had a unique tune to remind people of the glory of Haarlem. I guess these are the things where national pride comes from, which I would definitely not equal with nationalism. This is just a healthy attitude towards your home country.
While looking for the entrance of the church I had to discover that there are a lot of small shops built just beside the walls of the church (at the moment really posh hairdresser, then Louis Voitton etc..), and even the entrance is through one of these. Starts interesting.. the church was originally roman catholic, but as the dutch turned to the reformed religion they whitewashed the walls, therefore the interior is really simple. The ceiling is covered with cedar wood, really unique and spactacular. Even so, the most amazing part of the church is really the organ. Enormous!! I even got to know that Händel and Mozart have also tried it and both had a good opinion on it, there are quite a number of concerts held here.
Going on my walk in Haarlem I got to the river Spaarne. This was the main source of Haarlem's glory, they were trading with textiles, and then later on brewery has become another main industry of theirs. The Gravestenenbrug is a bridge only for pedestrians, you also have to get off your bike, because the surface is not flat at all, but triangular. The canal is really impressive, nice houses are framing the river. I made my journey a bit longer to enjoy these houses and then take a turn to find the Frans Hals Museum.
Frans Hals was a painter who has been working and living in Haarlem among other great big masters, but surely he is the most famous of all. He has been painting portraits for rich families, but also did a lot of militia paintings. I liked how he paints the characters, very detailed, the people almost come to life, every texture and pattern so lively! Even I am not a big fond of the 16th century paintings, he's the guy I really admire, because his paintings highly excel from the others'. The museum itself was a great entertainment, because it had a very creative introductory section, where they had a few pictures of the city, the countryside and the people enlarged, and they filled them with historical data or interesting facts, so you got to now a lot about the city before actually seeing the collection. I enjoyed it a lot!!!!
Then when you come out you are enchanted from the street where the museum is. Lots of really small and typical houses and all look completely the same, and have trees in front of them. Lovely!
Well that was it for Haarlem, on my way back it started raining so I was lucky to avoid that. All day it was so humid, cloudy but still really warm.. not pleasant at all. That's why you should have an enntertaining program like I did, I highly recommend a visit if you are somewhere close!!!
That's all folks! For now at least. Take care.
csók
J.
PS: Thanks Fred for the comments, but there were some others as well, though I have to admit that you are the pioneer of commenting my blog!
So everyone! If you have comments, don't hold them back!
Haarlem
2006.07.22.
Today I decided to go to Haarlem after a big hesitation, 'cause I couldn't decide if I wanted to go to Groningen, Utrecht or to Amsterdam again. Then came the saviour idea, Haarlem.
Probably first associations are connected to Harlem, which is part of New York (and not the nicest..). Well as you may know New York was founded by the Dutch in 1613 and was called New Amsterdam earlier on. Then came the brits in 1664 (alright I had to look this up, I am not a walking history book after all....) and called it New York after the count of York. Funny..
Ok so Haarlem, well this is the fifth biggest city in the Netherlands, so it is fairly big (compared to Delft), and it is 15 mintues away from Amsterdam to the west, so that means it is 40 minutes by train from Delft to the north. I took a lot of notes, because so often something came into my mind, and somehow I just like to make sure that I don't forget things. That's why i am writing a diary.
On the way I saw several flower fields, and even though they were not as impressive as they probably are during the spring it was still nice view from the train. I discovered that at the moment they are growing heather, daffodils and gladiolus (kardvirág in hun). The other thing I discovered during my stay here, that they use every little square meter of land for something useful, even if it ends up to place an industrial park right beside small weekend huts. Everything seems so peaceful as if this was the best way to arrange lands. At least it seems so.
Haarlem is really a romantic place. I just simply loved it! The streets, the houses, the shops, the cafés, everything!! (even the coffee shops look nice, too bad I still refuse pot..) So this was a good decision of mine, as I arrived to the Grote Markt, the main market place I saw that there is a market going on, it was just so nice, because there weren't any tourists except me, so I could really get a breeze of their lifestyle. On the market square you see the Stadhuis, the city hall, which is a really impressive building already, but then you turn back and discover the Vleeshal (former meat market), which is even more impressive, and only then you see the Sint Bavo Kerk, or as they simply call it Grote Kerk. Big it is for such a small town once Haarlem could be.
You know there was a separate bell tower for the church, because the church had to be able to ring ten different tones, and the place was not enough for so many types of bells. Because the bells were ringing for example to warn the people that an execution is going on at the scaffold at the city hall; or when the city gates were closing, but my favourite is that they had a unique tune to remind people of the glory of Haarlem. I guess these are the things where national pride comes from, which I would definitely not equal with nationalism. This is just a healthy attitude towards your home country.
While looking for the entrance of the church I had to discover that there are a lot of small shops built just beside the walls of the church (at the moment really posh hairdresser, then Louis Voitton etc..), and even the entrance is through one of these. Starts interesting.. the church was originally roman catholic, but as the dutch turned to the reformed religion they whitewashed the walls, therefore the interior is really simple. The ceiling is covered with cedar wood, really unique and spactacular. Even so, the most amazing part of the church is really the organ. Enormous!! I even got to know that Händel and Mozart have also tried it and both had a good opinion on it, there are quite a number of concerts held here.
Going on my walk in Haarlem I got to the river Spaarne. This was the main source of Haarlem's glory, they were trading with textiles, and then later on brewery has become another main industry of theirs. The Gravestenenbrug is a bridge only for pedestrians, you also have to get off your bike, because the surface is not flat at all, but triangular. The canal is really impressive, nice houses are framing the river. I made my journey a bit longer to enjoy these houses and then take a turn to find the Frans Hals Museum.
Frans Hals was a painter who has been working and living in Haarlem among other great big masters, but surely he is the most famous of all. He has been painting portraits for rich families, but also did a lot of militia paintings. I liked how he paints the characters, very detailed, the people almost come to life, every texture and pattern so lively! Even I am not a big fond of the 16th century paintings, he's the guy I really admire, because his paintings highly excel from the others'. The museum itself was a great entertainment, because it had a very creative introductory section, where they had a few pictures of the city, the countryside and the people enlarged, and they filled them with historical data or interesting facts, so you got to now a lot about the city before actually seeing the collection. I enjoyed it a lot!!!!
Then when you come out you are enchanted from the street where the museum is. Lots of really small and typical houses and all look completely the same, and have trees in front of them. Lovely!
Well that was it for Haarlem, on my way back it started raining so I was lucky to avoid that. All day it was so humid, cloudy but still really warm.. not pleasant at all. That's why you should have an enntertaining program like I did, I highly recommend a visit if you are somewhere close!!!
That's all folks! For now at least. Take care.
csók
J.
PS: Thanks Fred for the comments, but there were some others as well, though I have to admit that you are the pioneer of commenting my blog!
So everyone! If you have comments, don't hold them back!
posted by Juli at 6:22 PM
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