This is my fifth trip to Holland and yet I had not yet been to Haarlem. Haarlem is very close to Amsterdam (about 20km) and a short train ride from centraal station (maybe 15 minutes) but this has always been a train trip too far on previous visits. I was keen to see the city and with a car at our disposal now was a good time to go!
In the car it was only a 20 minute drive. We drove right into a city centre car park and went walking about on foot. Super easy.
Leaving the car park on foot we were almost immediately in the Grote Markt, the central square of Haarlem. The weather was nice and there was lots of atmosphere with people sitting 'al fresco' and also a big fun fair type thing taking over the whole square.
This central part of Haarlem is so nice, old buildings and small streets. It is of course much like central Amsterdam except smaller, in some ways more authentic and mostly devoid of tourists. Haarlem is often cited as one of the best places to shop in Holland and we found this pretty much right on the money. Rather than one single 'mega mall' the city itself is the shopping centre with shops lining all of the central streets. Everything from major chains, supermarkets and quirky little one-off shops are represented here - with none (or not much of) the touristy crap.
And of course there is a snack shop or two. Our gold standard 'FEBO' was a bit too much of a walk away so we went for one in the centre. This place was totally 80's looking but that was okay - the goods were worthy!
Part of what I liked about Haarlem is how compact it is - that is the commerce side of things and the residential streets. In the very centre of Haarlem there are some very busy pedestrian shopping streets and then immediately connected to these busy commercial streets are totally quiet relaxed residential hideaways.
It would be very interesting to live here :)
In the car it was only a 20 minute drive. We drove right into a city centre car park and went walking about on foot. Super easy.
Leaving the car park on foot we were almost immediately in the Grote Markt, the central square of Haarlem. The weather was nice and there was lots of atmosphere with people sitting 'al fresco' and also a big fun fair type thing taking over the whole square.
And of course there is a snack shop or two. Our gold standard 'FEBO' was a bit too much of a walk away so we went for one in the centre. This place was totally 80's looking but that was okay - the goods were worthy!
Part of what I liked about Haarlem is how compact it is - that is the commerce side of things and the residential streets. In the very centre of Haarlem there are some very busy pedestrian shopping streets and then immediately connected to these busy commercial streets are totally quiet relaxed residential hideaways.
It would be very interesting to live here :)
And as easy as it was to get in, we went back to the car park, paid the relatively steep parking fee (6.40 euros for a few hours) and in 20 minutes were back home again. Too easy.
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