• Understand
• History
• Get in
• Get around
• See
• Do
• Buy
• Eat
• Drink
• Sleep
• Get out

Haarlem

Haarlem [1] is a capital of the North-Holland province, situated in the west of the Netherlands on the river Spaarne.

[edit] Understand

Haarlem is the center of a flower-growing district and the export point for flower bulbs. Many people commute to nearby Amsterdam.

[edit] History

The first recordings of the name 'Haarlem' date from the tenth century. Located on a much used north/south connection route, the city became the seat of the Counts of Holland. In 1245 the city was granted city rights by Count William II of Holland. Due to heroic acts of knights from Haarlem during the fifth crusade and their contributions in the siege of Damiate in 1217, Haarlem was granted permission to show a cross and a sword in the city's coat of arms.

[edit] Get in

Haarlem is connected on the main train line between Amsterdam and The Hague. It takes about 15 minutes to travel from Amsterdam by train. If you have – or rent – a bike, it takes an average cyclist around an hour to cycle from the centre of Amsterdam, a fairly relaxing ride on typically level terrain.

If you're taking the train from Schiphol Airport, there is no direct service so you will have to change trains in Amsterdam. A good alternative is to use the big red bus #300, called the Zuidtangent, which runs every 10-15 minutes between Schiphol and Haarlem Central Station. There are a fair amount of stops along the way, but for a lot of the journey there is no traffic because the bus has its own dedicated lane. The trip is approximately 30-40 minutes. You will need to carry your luggage on the bus with you. The fare is settled with a strippenkaart, a ticket that you feed into a punch machine when you board the bus. The strippenkaart costs just a few Euros, and is available from the news shop on your left just before you exit the Schiphol terminal out into the bus pickup area. There are many bus stops clustered in this area -- the one for the Zuidtangent is across the street, and is indicated on the sign at the bus stop.

[edit] Get around

Haarlem is best walked on foot: it's about a 15 minute walk from the train station to the city center. If you don't want to walk there are buses taking you from the station to the city center and back every few minutes.

[edit] See

• Teylers' Museum
• Frans Hals Museum The only good memory of the painter Toulouse-Lautrec about the Netherlands.
• Corrie ten Boom museum has free guided tours (in English and Dutch) of the ten Boom house. Tourists can stand in the "hiding place" where Jews were hidden from the Nazis, and see the 'all-clear' sign used to indicate when it was safe for refugees and resistance workers to come and go. Reminiscent of the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, although where in the Anne Frank House they have had to remove all furniture due to the volume of visitors, the Ten Boom museum is still furnished as a house, making it much easier for visitors to see what it was like for those that lived there during the war. Truly one of Holland's lesser-known gems.

[edit] Do

Visit the Teylers Museum which is the oldest public museum in the Netherlands. The museum hosts a collection of fossils (among which the famous Haarlem specimen of Archaeopteryx), minerals, historical scientific instruments and works of art, exhibited in a 19th century manner.

The Patronaat is Haarlem's largest venue for live music. Their fridays and saturdays are dance nights and generally well visited.

On summer days, hang out in the sun on Haarlem's 'Grote Markt' (near the Grote Kerk) after a long day of shopping or go sightseeing in Haarlem's ancient city centre.

[edit] Buy

Haarlem is a popular city for shopping in the region. It has been voted many times as Best Shopping City in the Netherlands and boasts a very diverse range of shops. The Grote Houtstraat, the main shopping street, has most of the obvious shops. The surrounding streets (Kleine Houtstraat and Gierstraat) house smaller shops, where you can browse or buy everything from high end bicycles to teapots.

Shops are open from Monday to Saturday. Opening times usually are from 9am to 5pm, except on Monday's when shops open at 1pm. Many shops in the city center also open every first Sunday of the month.

[edit] Eat

The inner city hosts large a variety of restaurants and eat-cafe's. Worth mentioning are

• Restaurant/Brasserie Stempels; Klokhuisplein 9
• Restaurant La Plume; Lange Veerstraat 1
• Eet, Lunch en Biercafe Bruxelles; Lange Wijngaardstraat 16
• Grand Cafe Nobel; Spaarne 36
• Brasserie/Restaurant De Nieuwe Karmeliet; Spekstraat 6
• Restaurant Specktakel; Spekstraat 4
• Restaurant Mooi Java; Kruisweg 32

• Grill Restaurant De Kale Pater; Schagchelstraat 19
• Lucas & Lucas; Lange Veerstraat 51

[edit] Drink

Beerbrewing has been a very important industry for Haarlem. The historical Haarlem's beer, recreated in 1995 is Jopenbier or Jopen.

[edit] Sleep

The Haarlem hostel (Jan Gijzenpad 3) is located in the north west corner of the city. It's by far the cheapest place to stay, but quite a few miles away from the city center.

[edit] Get out