Haarlem is a very walkable town and a fun place to explore with its winding Medieval streets and brick alleyways. It’s also just 15-minutes away from Amsterdam by train, making it a great choice if you’re looking for a day trip from the Dutch capital. It’s also a nice and easy bike ride from Amsterdam — we opted to bike and the ride took a little over 1 hour.
The historic center of Haarlem in the Netherlands dates back to the 10th century and many of its original Medieval buildings still remain today. Most of the buildings in the city center have the characteristic steeped gabled roofs, which give the entire town a charming, fairytale look.
The city has a rich history and was even the second largest city in Holland during the 14th century thanks to its geographic location and status as a major trading port. It even lent its name to a new settlement across the ocean in what was known then as New Amsterdam (before it became New York); the extra ‘a’ was eventually dropped by the English and today the neighborhood is named Harlem.
Grote Markt
Every Saturday and Monday, the Grote Markt at the center of town turns into an open-air market with dozens of vendors selling everything from stroopwaffels and cheese to more practical items like socks and bicycle accessories. The flowers are really something to see and are amazingly affordable. The town is nicknamed Bloemenstad, or Flower City, due to its long history of being the epicenter of the tulip-growing trade.
St. Bavo Cathedral (Grote Kerk)
The aptly named Grote Kerk, or Great Church, is hard to miss at the eastern end of Grote Markt. The Gothic interior is stunning with its stark white walls and wooden vaulted ceiling.
If you like weird history and quirky trivia, then Grote Kerk should be at the top of your ‘must-see’ list. Here’s a sampling of some of the unique history contained within these fifteenth century masonry walls:
- One end of the church has a massive and beautifully ornate pipe organ dating from 1738, which was played by Mendelssohn, Handel, and a 10-year-old Mozart. At the time it was constructed, it was the largest pipe organ in the world. Check the church’s website for information on their free concerts for a chance to see the pipe organ in action.
- The floor of the church is made up of over a thousand gravestones, beneath which many of the city’s most wealthy residents were buried. Unfortunately, embalming practices weren’t as evolved as they are today and so during the hottest months, the parishioners were subjected to the strong odor of decomposing bodies, which led to the term stinking rich. The famous Dutch painter Frans Hals (more on him later) is buried in the church — you can see his gravestone inside the lectern.
- There is a small cafe called the Brewers’ Chapel or Brouwerskapel along one side of the nave. One of the stone piers here has two notches on the side, which show the heights of both the tallest (8′-8″) and shortest (2′-9″) residents of Haarlem. Stranger still, the shorter of the two, a man by the name of Simon Paap, was supposedly killed in a dwarf-tossing incident.
- At the far end of the church is the enclosed brass lectern, which is itself a work of art. Inside is a gold statue of what looks to be an eagle. Apparently, the artist was intending to make a sculpture of a pelican, but having never seen an actual pelican, he took a few artistic liberties. Luckily, no one else knew what a pelican looked like either!
Museums: Frans Hals & Teylers
There are a few museums in Haarlem that are free to visit with a Museumkaart pass. The most notable is the Frans Hals Museum, which is named after the famous Dutch Golden Age painter who once called Haarlem home in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries. The museum juxtaposes many of Hals’ famous paintings with other artwork and furniture from the same era as well as more modern pieces inspired by the Dutch master.
If you have time for another museum, the Teylers Museum is worth a visit (and is also free for Museumkaart holders). Visiting the Teylers Museum is like taking a trip back in time. Opened in 1778, this is the oldest museum in the Netherlands and has managed to hold on to much of its original charm.
The museum houses a range of objects, including fossils, minerals, and an impressive collection of 18th-century scientific instruments. Entrance to the museum includes a free audio guide, which is helpful in understanding the experiments and theories these contraptions were once made to test.
De Adriaan Windmill
On the edge of the historic center of town is the photogenic De Adriaan Windmill. The original windmill was constructed in 1779 but was rebuilt in 2002 many years after a fire destroyed the structure in 1932. The best view of the windmill is from the opposite side of the Binnen Spaarme canal, just a few minutes walk north-east of the city center.
The windmill is open to visitors year round and has a small museum inside. There are also guided tours offered during the summer months. Check the Molen De Adriaan website for more information on visiting hours and tickets.
Eat & Drink
With all of this walking around, you might work up an appetite. Lucky for you, Haarlem has many fantastic restaurants. We had a hard time deciding between a few of the highly rated brunch places in town, but ended up settling on a coffee shop and breakfast spot called by Lima. Other nearby options for coffee or brunch are Cups & Leafs, Anne&Max, and Bar Wolkers, all of which are within just a few blocks radius from one another.
A few blocks from the De Adriaan Windmill on the eastern side of the Binnen Spaarme canal is the beach-themed bar and restaurant City Beach the Oerkap. If you don’t have time to make it out to the coast, which by the way is just 10km away, this is your next best option. Here you can enjoy a cocktail while laying canalside on a lounger in the sand before heading to catch the train back to Amsterdam. Not a bad way to end the day!
