Today was a fairly light day, distance-wise. Maybe the outfitter thought they needed us to start easy. Whatever the reason, 30 km was the distance for today. After a hearty breakfast, we left the Westward Art Hotel and started the first day of the bike tour.
Trails here are plentiful and well-marked. And it should be, as it appears that more people travel by bicycle than by automobile, by a wide margin. We talked to a guy who was helping us set up the bikes last night and he said that Amsterdam is crazy for biking. He has lived here 12 years and still doesn’t like it. He told us that our route takes us west out of Amsterdam and we are on the western fringes anyway so we won’t have to deal with much of the craziness. It should be calmer in other areas.
And it was. For the first 20 minutes or so we drifted along with hundreds of other bikers, most of them with a much better idea of how the trail system works, some of them that just didn’t care.
I’m sure we stuck out like crazy. For one thing, we were riding high-end electric bikes with big red pannier bags. Many of the other bikes plying the pathways are much more utilitarian and some look like they are on their last legs, with squeaks and rattles to match. The other thing? Helmets. I’ve noticed that only the tourists on the outfitter bikes have helmets on. Outside the city, I saw a few more helmets, usually worn by serious bikers in Spandex and traveling at high speeds.
Nice day for a ride also. Started out with a hoodie because of the coolness of the morning, and soon had to shed that as the day warmed.
Rather than go right to the next hotel as the route suggested, we veered off downtown to the grote markt (large market) downtown, which is a large city square flanked by centuries-old buildings, including a colossal cathedral. We first passed by the Corrie ten Boom Museum. We had hoped to get a tour of this but tickets are gone many weeks in advance so we just had a look at the outside.
We paid the 4 Euros each to take a walk through one of the most notable buildings in the city, originally a Catholic cathedral built in the 1400’s. It is now a Reformed Protestant church. Of particular note is the pipe organ which Mozart played in 1766 when he was ten years old. Also, over 1500 people are buried in the church floor, and you have to watch your step to prevent tripping over some of the uneven stones which double as grave markers. This church dominates the skyline of Haarlem and is referred to on the streets signs simply as grote kerk (large church). Unimaginably huge. I took lots of pictures. We were remarking that it would be fun to climb the tower or get up into the upper levels or behind the organ. No possibility of that, however.
We ate lunch sitting at the base of a statue outside of Laurens Jansz Coster, an inventor, who allegedly predated Johannes Gutenberg in the invention of movable type. Seems that he observed that letters he was carving in pieces of wood would make impressions in the sand which gave him the idea of typesetting. However, Gutenberg got all the credit and Coster is still regarded locally as a local hero as his name appears in many places throughout the city.
We walked around the square for a while before venturing farther afield.
After this we decided to check out another cathedral, this one the St. Bavo Cathedral just about 15 minutes away by bicycle. We were not on the bike paths anymore and, although there are many bike lanes in the city proper, they can be confusing sometimes for newbies like us. We did all the newbie things like riding the wrong way and riding in the bus lane. But we eventually did make it there.
This cathedral was built in the late 1800’s and has a much newer feel to it, although it is still gargantuan. It is yet unfinished as there are some areas that were left for future generations to finish when it was built. For instance, the dome was planned to have paintings of the Apostle John, but is just a white ceiling right now.
In contrast to the grote kerk, this cathedral allowed visitors to access some of the higher parts of the building, including the top of the dome and the roof of the bell tower. The dome is accessed by a narrow spiral staircase and a series of wooden catwalks above the arched ceiling on one side of the building. From there you are looking at the center of the church from a dizzying height. A narrow walk goes all the way around the inside of the dome.
Another, even narrower, spiral staircase leads up into he bell tower. This one, after going past the massive bells and the clock, ends up on the roof of the tower, where a metal platform has been set up to allow views of the city. And it is a magnificent view. We stood up there for a while and gazed out at the city of Haarlem, all packed together in a series of red and brown roofs and narrow streets.
I guess you can see from the number of pictures that I thought this was super cool.
Upon recommendation from one of the guys at the cathedral and confirmation from the receptionist at the hotel, we biked to DeLachende Savaan, an Indonesian restaurant hiding in a narrow alley near the grote markt. This restaurant did not disappoint. We ordered the Rice Table, a collection of 8 dishes to share and it was really delicious. Very enjoyable meal.
After dinner we biked to the Elswout Estate, a private estate originally built by wealthy merchants from Amsterdam. The house and buildings are still private, but there are some trails through the estate that are open to the public. We hiked for 2.5km before biking back to the hotel.
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