After waking early and exploring more of Amsterdam, meeting up with Richele again in her beloved Haarlem was a surprising change. So nearby, we thought it would be much the same. Though a city, for us it has a more human scale somehow. Like this public market near the cathedral.
6076 Open Market
Again with the building ornamentations, I wondered what the story is about the roosters we saw so often.
6077 Wake Up Call?
Another church is now a museum, but it was closed by the time we arrived so we stood outside checking it out.
6082 Museum
Richele managed to coax the door monitor into letting us inside for a few minutes, which only allowed us to glance quickly. In that brief time, I was most taken by the art created by looking out through hand-blown 17th century glass panes.
6089 Impressions of Haarlem
I like the contrast provided by the two more contemporary panes, and wonder how the originals came to be broken and replaced. We wandered more of that open air market, drinking in the colors, aromas and sounds of life.
6092 Taste of Haarlem
We learned about the “widow’s garden” created some time in the past as a sanctuary for grieving. I guess by now it’s integrated but residents enjoy the extra privacy.
6108 Widow’s Garden
Like the Vondelpark in bustling Amsterdam there are many quiet places, but here they seemed to be distributed all around the city. Also like Amsterdam there are of course lots of canals, though I took surprisingly few pix of them on this brief visit.
6111 Duck & Couple
There seemed to be more quiet alleys and back streets than we’d seen in Amsterdam.
6114 Quiet Alley
There were far fewer tourists, and we saw many Dutch families out for a leisurely stroll, and bikes with kid seats like the one at left in this pic.
6116 Dutch Life
Of course, plenty of new and interesting building ornamentations abounded for me to check out with a zoom lens.
6121 Tale of Woe
I’m curious what’s going on between the two characters at the left of that bas relief. But soon enough I was distracted by a canal, drawbridge, and colorful brick work.
6136 Canal Bridge
Before long dusk was approaching and we headed back toward the town square, where something was odd. Distributed around the square, small groups and families had gathered in a large crowd. There was some quiet conversation, but mostly something like silent anticipation.
6159 Strange Gathering
Just as we paused to wonder what might be going on, a canon went off and music came from all around us! We hadn’t noticed that musicians were scattered around the square and amidst the crowd. Turns out we had chanced upon the opening of “The Haarlem Culture Festival” which initiates the cultural season for the arts. It was totally enchanting for us to hear the avant garde orchestral music in company of mostly locals joined by a few startled visitors like us. Having once performed in “Fiddler On The Roof” as the tailor Motel, I particularly enjoyed the spot chosen by a reed section.
6177 Roof Reeds
The next day of this fast paced trip, we headed for Bruges.
John & Anne Wiley 
You must be logged in to post a comment.