The historic city of Haarlem is one of the most attractive destinations in the Netherlands.
We'll take you on many walks through the quiet pedestrian lanes but watch out for the bicycles.
It seems like half the population rides bicycles so there are plenty of these two wheelers
all over the place but the historic center is a safe and quiet zone.
Take a look on the map.
I'll show you the main neighborhoods you want to have a look at when you're visiting Haarlem.
In the center the market square with the great church towering over, and just below there
is a series of pedestrian lanes lined with shops and cafés that are very charming, and
there are little side residential lanes here as well.
Two main museums, the Franz Halls collection and the Tyler Museum, the oldest history museum
in the country.
And there's a big canal that wraps around the whole city.
You're probably arriving by train and is an easy 10 minute walk from the station and all
along you will find a nice variety of shops every place you turn when you're in Haarlem.
Into the heart of town which is a network of half a dozen pedestrian lanes all of which
lead to the center, the Market Square with the big church towering over it all.
It's one of the largest market squares in the Netherlands and most days it's wide open
with sidewalk restaurants but on Saturday morning there's a big open market with all
sorts of cheese, vegetables, clothing, knickknacks, antiques for sale.
That Saturday market is open from about 8 o'clock in the morning until after 4 PM so
it's a big day.
You can have a look at the market that go off to the shopping lanes and come back to
the market.
There's so much to see that we have an entire separate movie later to present all about
that market.
We will also take you inside the big church on the market square.
It's called Grote Kerkand, and is one of the largest in the country, and about four centuries
old, built in the late Gothic style.
As usual the area around the outside of a big church is a very busy spot, the center
of town, lots of bicycles whizzing by.
It's kind of a main bicycle lane right behind the church connecting a couple of the major
squares.
It's fascinating to see how many people the family can put on a bicycle and this one's
packing an extra bike in the cart.
Notice the baby hanging from dad, mom behind and two in the cart, five people on that bike.
This neighborhood behind and just south of the church is really one of the most attractive
parts of town – the way they've got those tables set up and the outdoor café ambience,
and the pedestrian lane going right through the middle of it.
It's even more interesting than the main market square on the other side of the church.
This row of small buildings is actually attached to the outside of the church – formerly
it was residences and some shops and workshops – now there's a gelateria their.
This is typical of the Dutch style of making full use of their churches, not just for religious
purposes but for the life of the society in general, illustrated by this model on display
inside the church.
The ornately gabled structure of brick and stone next door was the meat market, built
in 1602, one of the finest Dutch Renaissance style buildings in the nation.
This plaza behind the church we have been looking at is called the Old Green Market
circled here in yellow on the map, and now we're venturing into the network of small
pedestrian lanes.
This charming block is a fine example of living the good life outdoors in Haarlem.
We're here in late September, the weather is perfect, it's a very relaxed atmosphere
with people enjoying drinks or a meal at the sidewalk restaurants and pedestrian strolling
by.
Many of these buildings date back 400 years to the 17th century when Haarlem was at its
peak of prosperity.
They were homes and workshops and warehouses of the merchants.
Today there are a lot of bars and restaurants and then it becomes a shopping street.
And this leads us right into perhaps the most charming street in Haarlem and maybe the cutest
lane in the country.
Kleine Houstraat.
Yep.
Little House Street.
[laughs] Exactly.
It's a small street with small privately owned boutiques mostly, so it's not like a big shopping
street with big brands, but more specialized, specialized boutiques, yeah.
Unique.
Unique, yeah, yeah.
And the cafés, and the cafés, yeah.
Same thing, yeah, same thing, yeah.
The bigger street in the center is for the bigger brands and the bigger stores, yeah,
the white street, yeah.
What's the name of the street?
It's Grote Haustraat, the little, and big [laughter].
It's always encouraging to see locals out sharing the street with you, it gives you
an indication you're onto something authentic.
And you might have a quick chat.
What's the name of the store?
Attitude, attitude, clothing store, yeah, ladies clothing.
No surprise you'll find lots of ladies clothing along the Little House Street, and yet there
are such unique shops you'll find something different and unusual.
They might be a little biased, but according to the Tourist Information Office, Haarlem
is the best shopping city in the Netherlands.
And if you want more details about these shops go to the tourism website where they list
640 shops in the center with detailed info about each store listing address, websites,
goods featured, and phone number contacts with a widely diverse range of shops.
This retail zone of Kleine Haustraat is only 400 m long and yet it might take you a few
hours to browse your way through it.
When you reach the busy cross street, which used to be a canal, now filled in as the busy
traffic street, you don't need to go any further on Kleine Haustraat, it's residential on the
southern extension, so turn back into the pedestrian shopping zone for more fun.
We are going to show you now all the different shopping streets that you'd want to walk down,
and then we will take you over to a quieter residential district on the west side of town.
You won't get lost here because it's a small district and the streets are rather straight
and run at right angles to each other, but there's plenty here to keep you busy for a
full day just wandering around.
Walk along some of these connecting streets like Anegang, it's almost like a wide shopping
mall that joins up three of the other main shopping streets.
You'll find the shoppers and workers are friendly and ready to talk.
How would you describe Haarlem for the visitor?
Well Haarlem is like a village.
It's a town of course, 780 years, and it's not very crowded.
You can walk on your own.
In Amsterdam when you come on the street you are moved.
Here you walk alone.
If you see Amsterdam and Haarlem, Haarlem is very quiet and Amsterdam is very crowded.
But we have a lot of old things.
We have the oldest museum, the Tyler Museum, on the Spaarne, yes.
And of course we have the Franz Hals Museum, a nice building, we have the great market
with the enormous church, and a lot of things to see.
A lot of people say, well we stay in Amsterdam but for one day we came to Haarlem and wow,
what a beautiful city.
No cars.
No.
No garage.
No.
Just bicycles.
And that's another difficulty – to park your car, it's not easy.
But it's quiet, those side lanes, yeah, yeah, very quiet.
There's a lot of quiet places in and around Haarlem.
I am born in Haarlem and I'm glad to live here, that's great, yeah.
The shop is called Camera Warehouse and if you ever need any photo help or other kinds
of information stop in – very friendly and just two blocks south of the market square,
very central.
No doubt you find yourself winding back to the market square several times as you walk
around.
All streets seem to lead there and from the square you can easily head on out to the big
shopping street, Grote Haustraat, the lane with all the big famous chain stores and plenty
of quirky little boutiques.
You could easily visit Haarlem as a day trip from Amsterdam which is just 15 minutes away
by train with frequent train service every 10 minutes between the cities.
However if you come on daytrip you're probably not going to be getting to the ends of some
of the shopping lanes and into the interesting little back streets or to the museums.
If you spend a night or two you'll have plenty of time.
Unlike Little House Street the Big House Street does extend beyond the busy street here with
a lot more shops all the way down to a canal, so keep on going to notice this interesting
clock arch.
It's undoubtedly the main shopping lane and you will notice some familiar stores.
Just because the city is 800 years old and has many buildings dating to the 16th century
doesn't mean they have to be old-fashioned.
Eventually you get to the end at Gasthuisvest and now you'll find out were all the cars have been
hiding.
There are busy bus lanes and cars going by, so watch it as you cross over.
Take time out for a snack or lunch as I did at Blender, a very friendly and popular spot
with great service and a lot of healthy organic food.
Across the street you'll find the main canal of Haarlem which extends all the way around
the old town in a big loop.
Part of the waterway is the river Spaarne and the rest is a man-made canal.
This typical bridge can be passed by most of the pleasure craft, but some are a little
too high and so the bridge has to come up, it's a drawbridge.
You find this all over the country – people on the roadway just wait their turn and the
bridge operator pushes a button, the bridge comes up, the boat goes through, bridge goes
back down again and the traffic resumes.
The canal has a variety of recreation users including some standup paddle borders gliding
along quite serenely.
Many Dutch towns have several canals running right through the middle of them, but in Haarlem
the canal goes around the outside of the old town.
Here the city center is streets for bicycles and pedestrians.
A delightful aspect of most Dutch towns is the corner bar, a place for the neighbors
to get together, and visitors, and have a beer and conversation, maybe have dinner.
This cat is on duty guarding the entrance to a residential compound where the public
is welcome to have a look.
One of the many traditional Dutch elements found here is the "hofje".
This is the courtyard housing for senior citizens and you find these kinds of institutions throughout
the country.
In Haarlem there are about 20 of these senior residential compounds and they have got a
history going back hundreds of years.
This traditional form of senior housing got started back in the 14th century as a kind
of charity that was funded by religious, wealthy people who wanted to take care of the poor
and also earn credits for themselves for getting into heaven.
We'll see a couple more in a few minutes.
Typical of the Dutch pattern, you have a lot of housing on these quiet little side streets
that are mostly for pedestrians.
Cars can come through occasionally for delivery or pick up but otherwise it's for people and
bicycles – a quiet neighborhood in the center of town.
It's a very efficient use of land while creating dynamic neighborhood.
You have shops, groceries and entertainment nearby, while living in peace.
The name of the street is Breestrat.
I like it because it's quiet – you can sit here, I can have my wine, something and I
watch the people.
And your three blocks away from the, from the supermarket and the shops everything,
and my children, my children live 10 minutes, five minutes from here.
Many streets like this, maybe 100 streets like this.
Yes, yes.
All over Haarlem – it's so well-planned.
It's the old style the old plan.
Yes this is the old plan.
You have the street, you see that one?
That's themLange Raamstraat.
Oh, okay.
And that's also a small lane.
All the streets here in the neighborhood are.
How many years you live here?
35 years, 35 years, in this house, wow, in the same place you like it.
You get around by bicycle?
Yes.
You can come by car here.
But the bike is faster, easier.
If I go to my work with the bike it's only one stoplight, but if I go with the car, six.
Laughter.
So it's faster by bike.
So, it's faster by bicycle.
Well thank you very much for this information.
You are welcome, laughter.
The people here are friendly.
Laughter.
So, cheers.
Haarlem actually is a pretty tiny, small village within a city.
It's very hospitable here.
And you're now actually in the center of Haarlem.
It's a really village feel – it's like – I know most of the people that are living here,
because everybody knows each other, in the center, in the center everybody knows.
Yeah like the Jordaan, Jordaan.
This is actually called the Jordaan of Haarlem.
You're in the midst of it and this is a café, theVijfhoek, which is a bar that is filled
with locals.
So when you go in the center, the center of Haarlem you've got a big market, you know
that?
Yeah the Grot Markt, the big place.
And this is really for the locals where we hang out.
Well you got Harlem in New York.
It's actually deferred from Haarlem, this city, with double a.
So you've got, you've got Haarlem.
Brooklyn is Breukkelen.
You know Brooklyn?
I live in Brooklyn.
You lived in Brooklyn?
The original name of Brooklyn is Breukkelen.
Oh.
It's a city and Holland actually, and New York was New Amsterdam.
These historic neighborhoods have been functioning very well for hundreds of years.
Holland developed a relatively dense settlement pattern that produced these very pleasant
neighborhoods because half this country was a big swamp, and so therefore the people clustered
together in their little villages, and they gradually drained out the marshes and created
dryland.
Another example of the traditional hofje with its garden center and cluster of apartments
around it, nicely protected by a wall, keep the tourist out.
Some of them are open to the public, some not.
A few modern apartments in the center keep that same pattern of a garden courtyard.
This hofje has a very inconspicuous entry.
It looks like a private door but it's open during the daytime to visitors, so step on
in you are welcome to have a look at the garden, but don't make any disturbing noises
Just outside this one is the lively Botermarkt square with a bunch of sidewalk cafés and
outdoor bars.
At the end of this you'll find yet another of the pedestrian lanes of the city, Gierstraat,
which changes names here to Koningstraat.
And now we have shown you all of the major pedestrian lanes of Haarlem, and so you can
see this is a marvelous town to come and visit – for more than a day, it's worth a night
or two.
With a population just over 150,000 it's large enough to offer a lot of variety and attractions
and has got that great history.
Parts of town are really buzzing with activity – people out on the street – while other
parts are more laid-back.
And yet it's small enough to create that cozy village feeling.
People here seem to be in less of a rush than in the big cities and more likely to stop
and have a chat.
One of the most popular gathering spots is a former church that's been converted to a
bar and outdoor terrace café – Jopenkerk with a microbrewery inside carrying on centuries-old
tradition when beer making was a large part of the Haarlem economy.
The bars of town function like communal living rooms where people gather at the end of the
day, have a drink along with endless conversations.
At the end I remind you that Haarlem is only 15 minutes away from Amsterdam by train and
well worth a visit.
There will be many more episodes about the Netherlands and several more movies about
Haarlem.
We will take you into a couple of great museums, the Frans Hals and Teyler.
And we'll take you to that big outdoor market filled with produce, cheese, clothing and
all sorts of great stuff.
Stay tuned.
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