It was quite a feat to dodge the many many bicycles! There's the train station in the background. It's windy AND rainy! (did I say .. ALL DAY!?)
This is one BUSY train station! Neat system of Netherlands Railways. You pay for a ticket for your destination, then you find the platform, and you wait for the next available train. Ours was 4.80euro per person and platform 1 or 2. It was a 15-minute ride to Haarlem. Jan's walking ahead to find the exit for Haarlem's city center.
Haarlem started as a place with three farms in the 10th century. In the 13th and 14th centuries the town's economy centered around beer brewing, ship building, and the cloth industry.
We knew we were arriving too early to check-in so we walked and walked to find a laundromat to clean clothes for this last segment of the trip.
There's usually one day in a trip that provides 'challenges' ..and.. enough frustration to sap your energy. It started at the laundromat. Haarlem has very few. This one had all of it's machines in use. Another laundromat was far away. We bided our time. Three hours, two loads later, suitcases packed with clean clothes, we headed back out in the RAIN and found some lunch (mostly to use the restroom, since the city center has very few public restrooms!)
Everything was WET at this time and we encountered problems checking-in with this digital-only hotel .. yikes! After much consternation and several phone calls we finally checked-in just before a couple of bicycle-riding English gentlemen also checked-in and squeezed their bikes in the tiny entryway.
WET and tired, we unpacked all so that it can dry, and flopped on the bed to rest before heading out to see their magnificent cathedral.
This is the .. Great Church .. or .. St.Bavo's. Built in the 14th and 15th centuries, it became a Protestant church in 1577.
The main attraction is the organ .. a Christian Muller organ, constructed in 1735-1738. Mozart played here as a 10-year-old, as did G.F. Handel. It has 5068 pipes, 68 registers and its longest pipe is 32 feet. We sat, tired, wet, and hungry and were surprised with a practice session by the organist. What a treat!
The church is 355 feet long,the nave is 95 feet high, the tower : 250 feet.
Looking towards the back of the church :
Some interesting stained glass windows :
The floor was filled with gravestones, 1500 of them !
The interesting pulpit was erected between 1490 and 1680 :
This was a side chapel, the Mary Chapel, with its own mini-organ :
It was a nice find at the end of a very trying day, a very wet one. The cathedral is just off of the town's main square, the Grote Markt.
We found a popular restaurant along the edge of the square for a warm dinner and beer.
Tomorrow, after breakfast, we'll try to find our way back to the train station for a day trip to Amsterdam and the Riiksmuseum and other sights. Whew! .. time for an early start to a good night's sleep.
Take care,
Jan & Joe
Sorry it was a hard day. That organ and stained glass, though! Glad you guys were able to figure the laundry out and get that chore taken care of. Indeed, every trip has days that are harder than others.
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