Project Amsterdam: December 2010

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Haarlem Netherlands

Public transportation is very efficient here (except on snow days as I found out yesterday!) which makes it easy to just jump on a train and head to a small town not far from Amsterdam. One Saturday, Keith & I went to Haarlem which is about 20 minutes west of Amsterdam by train. It's a quaint village (suburb???) with a nice outdoor market, less expensive shopping, museums, another huge beautiful church and mostly local people. We wondered around the market where you can find everything from cheese, fish, salami, nuts, olives, flowers, clothing, purses, fries with mayo, trinkets, to fresh bread. We found a tiny little spot to get a sandwich, which is the standard for lunch. In one of the pictures you will see a McDonalds in an old building. That's about the only US franchise you see over here. Starbucks is located at the airport, but that's it. We went to the Fran Hals museum. I liked the display of the Delft pottery, which is made in Delft (go figure!) not far from Haarlem. We also went into the big church where they were having a used book sale. The church floor is made of tomb stones, so the church essentially sits on top of a grave yard. Those with status were buried 'IN' the church, literally. I was amazed by the pipe organ. Here are a few pics from our day in Haarlem.

Typical street in Haarlem

7 Bike Garage (rhymes with marriage)

Love the fresh flowies!!

Not your typical McDonalds store front

Jen in Haarlem

Saturday errands

Cute Haarlem Home

Amazing Pipe Organ

Interior of the church

Church from the market area

Roadtrip Part II - Brugge Belgium

Since I last posted, much has taken place. I have some catching up to do, so my hope is to make a few posts to get up to date.

After Jerome, Keith & I left Antwerp, we drove for about an hour to Brugge Belgium. I really didn't know what to expect other than a few of the guys at work said to go here if I got the chance. Well now I know why. WOW!!! This place was awesome...everytime we turned a corner there was a new WOW. It's an old medieval village that was not destroyed in the war so most of the ancient buildings are in tact and have been preserved and well maintained. We spent the afternoon walking all around the village. There's an old church....AMAZING, beautiful canals, more chocolate stores, interesting and beautiful old building structures with artistic detail hard to comprehend. We ran into another Grand Pubah parade, Belgian girls practicing a cheer routine, the village square, and lots of tourists. The Europeans are into fries met (with) mayonnaise, so I had to take a pic of this little fry guy in the window of one of the stores. Ick, huh? They serve fries with mayo; you have to ask for ketchup and then you get charged for it. I didn't even know about Brugge until I came to Europe this time. If you ever get to Belgium, I highly recommend making a trip to Brugge. I could have spent much more time wandering around....it was a very enjoyable excursion. I have a ton of pictures and would love to share them all, but instead will share the highlights.