Long day of travel
Trip Start
May 17, 2012
1
2
26
Trip End
Jun 09, 2012
Where I stayed
Haarlem, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Saturday, May 19, 2012
We boarded the plane to Montreal, where we were supposed to have a 1 hour 45 minute layover. Plans were changed though, as the plane to Montreal was delayed in landing, and we were up in the air an extra 30 minutes or so. It wasn't too bad, because when got to our gate for the flight from Montreal to Brussels, we found that the second flight was delayed about an hour. So we had enough time in between. We made it on to Brussels with no problems, except we both slept very poorly on the plane. Right after we got off the plane, we found the trains and headed to Rosendaal. Here, we met up with Cobij and Tjidde Heijboer, our distant relatives, to have lunch. After lunch, we got back on the train and headed to Haarlem, where we walked to our hotel to drop off our stuff. We walked around Haarlem to find a place to eat, and stopped at Sparne 66, which was recommended to us by our hostess. The restaurant is run by three sisters, and is right on a canal. It was pretty, and had good food. I've posted a few of my pictures here, but mom will have to put hers up later. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and fell asleep.
This morning, we got up around 8, had a wonderful breakfast, packed some sandwiches from the leftovers for lunch, then headed out to walk around Haarlem. One of the plaza's we had walked through last night turned into a market, so we had fun looking at all the food and flowers in the market. We decided to stop in the church in the center of town and take a look around - it was definitely a good choice. After we were in the church about 15 minutes, a clarinet choir came in to practice for their concert later in the afternoon. So, we didn't have to go to the concert and still got to hear the fun music. When we left the church, we stopped at the hotel to grab our umbrellas (it wasn't supposed to rain, but it was kinda cloudy), then we went to the train station. We ate lunch while waiting for the train and ate desert (fresh pineapple from the market) on the train into Amsterdam. Once we got into the city and got acquainted with the directions and the transit, we went to three markets. The first, Albert Cuypmarkt, was huge, and we spent close to two hours there. Mom bought new luggage (her handle broke), and I bought bright pink pants. I will wear them sometime and make sure a picture gets posted here. After the Albert Cuypmarkt, we went to the Flower Market and the Waterlooplein flea market. The second two markets were kinda a let down after the amazing first one. After we left the markets, we went back toward the city center, and ended up going into the Amsterdam equivalent of "China Town." We ate at a place called New King. It had good food and quick service. We decided to head home right away because we both were exhausted. So, at the end of day 2, I leave you with this: I think my comforter here is going to place this hotel on Europe 2012's Best Of Europe's Hotels List.
Comments
Glad you are having a nice time so far. Your pictures are beautiful...so colorful and sharp! Keep 'em comin'! Loved hearing the clarinets too! Fun!