Christmas in Haarlem 2019

We spent Christmas 2018 in Haarlem visiting our daughter who lives and works in the attractive small, historic city, a few miles from Amsterdam. This last Christmas, as she wasn’t able to get back over to England, we decided we’d do the same again. The main difference this time was that our daughter’s boyfriend’s parents and brother had also decided to visit, although they weren’t staying as long as us and had arranged to stop in a hotel.

We rented a very nice, well equipped and beautifully furninshed and decorated apartment on the Turfmarkt, facing the River Sparne

The owner, Nana, was very nice and welcoming.

Looking out of the front window, this was the view over the river on Christmas morning

and looking to the left there was a good view over to the Grote Kerk

We mainly spent our time wandering round the city, doing some last minute Christmas shopping and stocking up for Christmas Eve, spending time with our daughter and eating and drinking.

On Christmas Eve we prepared our traditional Christmas Eve buffet which we shared with daughter, her boyfriend and his parents and brother. So a larger “gathering” than normal.

One of the things we’d particularly enjoyed during our previous Christmas visit was the singing in the Grote Markt, so after eating we went for a drink in Tierney’s Irish Pub before joining the crowd in the square. The Christmas service from St Bavo’s church had been relayed onto a large screen and afterwards, just after midnight, we joined in with the crowd singing Christmas carols and songs led by a singers and a band on a stage that had been erected in the square.

Just like the previous year, the square was packed, but we managed to find ourselves some space next to the Christmas tree.

There was a great atmosphere and we really enjoyed ourselves. Afterwards, we headed our separate ways and we returned to our apartment for a nightcap before turning in.

Christmas day we opened our presents before setting off around midday to our daughter’s house. They had invited some friends over as well as the two families for Christmas dinner but we went over a few hours earlier to exchange gifts and spend a little time together. We popped out for a walk before returning for a very delicious (and filling!) Christmas meal for us all.

Boxing day – ‘Tweede Kerstdag’ (second Christmas day) in the Netherlands – is always something of an anti-climax after the big day. We went out for a couple of hours for a wander round the old, narrow streets around the city centre.

The Friday was our last full day in Haarlem. We had thought about taking the train into Amsterdam for the day, but, for a number of reasons decided against it. Instead we visited Teyler’s Museum during the morning. We’d visited during our holiday in August, but there’s plenty to see and it was definitely worth returning.

The Oval room in Teylers Museum

Large electrostatic generator

Picture gallery

Afterwards we went for a light lunch with our daughter in the DeDAKKAS cafe which is located on top of the de Kamp multi-storey car park, and which afforded good views over the city.

The DeDAKKAS cafe on top of a multi-storey car park!

Our son then went off to spend some time with her during the afternoon and we had a wander round the city centre and along the canal.

We’d booked a table in the Art Nouveau style Bastijan restaurant for the evening.

We decided on the 4 course “surprise menu”, letting the chef select the dishes. We didn’t know what we were eating until they arrived. All the dishes were delicious.

Smoked wild boar starter

2nd course – pasta

Main course – swordfish

Pudding!

On Saturday our flight was leaving Schipol mid afternoon, so we spent the morning tidying up and after a short final wander round the city centre, relaxed in the apartment (Nana kindly allowed us to stay an extra few hours) until it was time to catch our bus to the airport.

Dutch cheese

There were no problems at the airport or during the flight and we were back home before 7 o’clock UK time. We’d had a very enjoyable 2nd Christmas in Haarlem. Depending on what happens during the next 12 months, we may return next year.

Last day in Haarlem

Our flight home at the end of our short holiday didn’t leave Schipol until after 7 o’clock, so we had more a less a full day before we got the bus to the airport. I had a wander along the canal first thing before we had to leave our little house.

We dropped our bags at our daughter’s work, went for a coffee and then had a wander round town, mooching round the pleasant shopping streets. There was a small market on in the Botermarkt

After grabbing a bite to eat we decided to visit Sint Bavo, the Grote Kerk. We’d been inside before a couple of years ago but decided we’d like another look round. There’s an entry fee, but it’s quite reasonable.

We caught the end of one of the regular organ recitals held in massive Gothic building. Installed in 1738, the organ is huge – it covers the whole west wall of the church and is almost 30 metres high. It’s something of a tourist attraction in it’s own right and has been played by Handel and Mozart.

The floor of the church is covered with gravestones. We spotted the grave of Pieter Teyler, who left the money for the museum that bears his name.

Afterwards we wandered down to the river to meet son and daughter by the windmill – they’d been spending the last afternoon together.

We walked back to the Grote Markt and had a final drink (mint tea!) then it was time to pick up our bags and say goodbye.

We’d had a good little holiday in Haarlem and the weather had been kind – much better than we’d expected from the weather forecast we’d seen before we arrived. The week had just disappeared and it’s not easy to leave your daughter behind, even if she is grown up 😦 We’re planning to go back for Christmas – providing we can find somewhere suitable to stay. And now we’re just about coming to the end of summer that’s not so long off.

Haarlem Jazz

Our visit to Haarlem coincided with the annual Jazz Festival which started on the Wednesday and ran through until Sunday. We’d hoped to catch some of the music on the Wednesday and Thursday before we headed for home on Friday. On Wednesday evening, however, it poured down more or less continuously so after spending some time watching one of the acts on the opening night, we decided to call it quits and retreated to Tierney’s bar! The next night was much better. It didn’t rain and we were able to sample some of the music and atmosphere.

On the Wednesday there was only one stage, set up in the Grote Markt, but the next night three more stages opened up. 2 other stages around the Grote Kerk – on Oude Groenmarkt and Klokhuisplein – and another venue at the Pletterij , on the outskirts of the town centre.

From what we saw there wasn’t much jazz being played at the Jazz festival, which is why it’s actually billed as Haarlem Jazz and more. On Thursday the main stage was occupied by a couple of performers playing / performing electronic dance music, which is very big in the Netherlands. Not my scene at all, but clearly loved by the audience of mainly young adults.

The other two stages around the Grote Kerk seemed to be devoted to soul music. Looking at the programme the “real” jazz seemed to be playing at the Pletterij .

Soul Six on the Klokhuisplein stage

We spent most of our time listening to a band on the smaller stage in the on Oude Groenmarkt . Uncle Sue are a local band and with a female singer and a horn section who were performing Stax style soul music. They were a good live act and much more up my street!

A walk among the dunes

As we were leaving Amsterdam on the Wednesday it started to rain, and when it rains in the Netherlands it really rains! It continued for the rest of the evening, which meant we didn’t hang around long to watch the start of the Haarlem Jazz festival that evening. (It was OK the next evening, though). The next morning seemed a little mixed but my son and I decided to risk it and took the bus to the Nationaal Park Zuid-Kennemerland, an area of sand dunes to the west of Haarlem .

The Connexxion, line 81 bus for Zandvoort from Haarlem train station took about 20 minutes to reach the Visitor Centre. There’s a number of marked walking and cycling trails that start from there. As we weren’t sure about the weather we decided to follow the green trail

The dunes are the nearest you’ll come to hills in this part of the Netherlands!

After a short while we came to Het Wed, a freshwater lake popular for swimming. There’s a good stretch of sand too and toilet and showering facilities. I reckon it would be a popular spot for families on a sunny day. But as it was cool and overcast only a few hardy souls were braving the water.

Het Wed

We carried on, taking a short diversion off the green route to climb up to a viewpoint, where we could just make out the sea in the distance..

On our way back to the Visitor Centre we passed some memorial stones. We stopped to take a closer look.

During the Nazi occupation members of the Resistance captured by the Nazis were taken to the dunes to be executed and were buried there. In May 1945, after the occupiers had retreated a search of the dunes found 422 bodies in 45 locations. After they were identified the bodies were reburied and the granite headstones have been placed above their graves. 347 of the victims, inlcuding Hannie Schaft , the “Girl with the Red Hair”, are buried in Erebegraafplaats Bloemendaal, a cemetery in the dunes. The rest are buried in nine graves which are marked by the gravestones which record how many murdered resistance members are buried in the immediate vicinity. We passed two of them. We stopped for a short while to pay our respects and placed a small stone on top of the headstone.

This stone tells that 92 people are buried in the vicinity

Moving on we saw some wild ponies having a snack. Ponies, deer, highland cattle and bison roam in parts of the reserve.

We were quite lucky. Although it was overcast we had some sunny spells and there was only one, very brief, heavy downpour. By the time we’d taken our cagoules out of our backpack and put them on it had passed over!

I could have spent longer wandering around the dunes and next time we’re in Haarlem if the weather is good enough I’d like to walk the longer blue route trail which goes over to the sea shore and also pay my respects at the cemetery and some of the other monuments.

The Tassen Museum

Well, I never thought I’d ever visit a museum dedicated to bags and purses, but that’s what we did after we’d been to Foam. My wife had been before on a solo trip to see our daughter earlier this year, had enjoyed it and said that I’d find it interesting. It’s on the Herengracht, just a short walk from Foam, so we made our way over there.

The museum was founded to display a private collection of bags owned by Hendrikje and Heinz Ivo. Originally it was in Amstelveen, a suburb south of Amsterdam, but moved to it’s present location in a rather grand 17th-century canal house that had previously been the residence of the Mayor of Amsterdam in 2007.

The collection is shown on the top two floors of the house with elegant tea rooms and temporary exhibitions on the first floor. So visitors start by climbing to the top floor and working their way down.

Modern stained glass window in the ground floor ceiling

My wife was right, I did find it interesting and enjoyed the visit. It was really a social history revealed by showing how handbags and the like (including bags used by men) evolved since medieval times. Right back then, both women and men kept their money and odds and ends in a leather bag on their belt – the oldest item in thecollection is a sixteenth century men’s bag made of goat leather with a metal frame.

the oldest exhibit

Over time men started to keep their stuff in pockets in their clothing while women tended to keep their’s in bags, the design which evolved over the years. For a while chatelaines, a series of chains hanging from the belt with hooks to hold small purses, scissors, sewing equipment and other items were fashionable, and their were quite a few examples of these in the collection.

From the 17th century to the late 19th century, women used pockets too. But these were seperate from clothing. They were hung from the waist under clothing which had slits in them so the pockets could be reached. This is how Lucy Lockett could lose her pocket! These went out of fashion with the advent of high waisted dresses in the Georgian period, leading to the development of the handbag.

Men continued to use bags, of course (I have several myself!), but they tended to be for specialised purposes – and there were examples of these, including tobacco pouches, gamblers’ bags and doctor’s bags, in the collection.

I found the top floor, with the earlier items, the most interesting. The floor below had a large display of bags from the 20th century, including expensive examples by designers and bags previously owned by celebrities including Madonna, Elizabeth Taylor and Hilary Clinton. They even had one from a certain Prime Minister, whose name I can’t bring myself to mention.

It’s amazing how many different styles of bag there have been, some of them quite vulgar! A surprising range of materials have been used to make them too from bamboo, beads, feathers, perspex, bottle tops, plastic cables and the skins of various animals including crocodiles, stingrays, leopards, and armadillos. Some of the animal skin bags being particularly horrible in that they included heads, legs, tails and other body parts as decoration.

If I hadn’t been encouraged by my wife, I’d never had thought of visiting the museum. But I found it fascinating and worth taking the time out to have a look around even for those of us with no interest whatsoever in fashion for the insights into social history. .

Foam Amsterdam

The second full day of our break in the Netherlands we left our son to spend the day with his sister and then took the train into Amsterdam – a 20 minute journey. I wanted to visit the Foam photographic museum, which is on the “Golden Bend” section of the Keizersgracht . It was a warm day, if overcast, so we decided we’d walk along the canal, which I always enjoy. It was surprisingly quiet – there weren’t as many people and, particularly, bicycles, around as during previous visits as can be seen in the photos I shot.

Foam is one of two photographic museums in Amsterdam. The other one, Huis Marseille, which we visited the last time we were in the Netherlands at Christmas, is also on the Keizergracht, and we passed it on our way to Foam.

There were four exhibitions showing in the museum. The main one was Silver Lake Drive a retrospective of the work of Alex Prager, an American photographer and film maker from Los Angeles. The exhibition included large scale prints and a number of films, in some cases photographs being stills from the films. Rather like Cindy Sherman, she creates scenarios but, rather than featuring herself, as Sherman does, she uses actors, models and extras. The scenarios are influenced by film noir, thriller, melodrama and crime fiction, but also have a surreal quality. Some of them were clearly influenced by the films of Alfred Hitchcock such as The Birds and North by North West.

The style of the photographs, with bright vibrant colours, was very similar to that of Martin Parr and there were similarities too in the way the photographs capture people in action, although Alex Prager’s scenes are staged whereas Martin Parr’s photographs are of real people, sometimes caught unawares but sometimes posed.

Crowd #1 from the series Long Week-end (2010)

Her compositions were interesting and often taken from unusual angles, like this one, looking upwards from floor level and with the figures positioned at the edges of the photo.

I hadn’t come across her work before so this was a good discovery!

Another of the exhibitions featured the work of a British visual artist Dominic Hawgood. In Casting Out the Self he

visualises the effect of the drug dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which he personally experienced as a transfer into the digital realm. (Foam website)

The works in this exhibition weren’t photographs as such but 3 dimensional objects and digital projections, a number of them including a statue of the Buddha. I had mixed feelings about this exhibition, but I did like one of the installations which included a circle of smaller reflective silver spheres surrounding a larger one, illuminated by UV light (A statue of the Buddha was also included in the installation)

On the top floor Morpher III (1989) by the French artist, Kévin Bray was an abstract multimedia work centred on a digital film in which he created a surreal, imaginary landscape.

I wasn’t so sure about this one at first, but once I’d worked out what was going on after watching the film a couple of times I found it quite engaging.

So, overall an interesting visit. Some of the works a little challenging and not to my taste but I certainly enjoyed the Alex Prager exhibition.

Teylers Museum

During our previous visits to Haarlem, we’ve passed the entrance to the Teylers Museum, which stands on the Spaarn embankment, many times, but I’d never visited.

Open to the public since 1784, it was the first museum in the Netherlands. It was founded after the death of Pieter Teyler van der Hulst (1702-1778) a successful silk merchant and financier who had a wide range of interests in the arts and sciences. In his will, Teyler left two million guilders (roughly 80 million euros) to establish a foundation, to promote theology, the sciences, and the arts.  In 1779, the Foundation’s first directors commissioned the young architect Leendert Viervant to design a ‘Books and Art Room’ behind the Foundation House (Fundatiehuis, where Pieter Teyler had lived). The result was the Oval Room, which is still the heart of the museum, although the premises have been expanded considerably since then. In fact, it’s rather like the Tardis. It doesn’t look so big from the outside but once you’re inside there’s a whole series of interconnected rooms and a whole new extension which, from the outside, you wouldn’t know were there.

By Teylers Museum, Haarlem, the Netherlands, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl, Link

It’s quite an amazing place. In many ways it’s an old fashioned museum with lots of exhibits, including fossils, minerals, coins and scientific instruments, many in glass display cases. There’s also two galleries of paintings and a large collection of drawings and prints by artists including Michelangelo, Raphael, and  Rembrandt. The building itself is also fascinating. We spent a couple of hours looking round but there’s really too much to see during one visit.

Visitors are provided with an audio guide which provides information on selected exhibits by entering a number. For this summer the audio guide also includes an introductory tour, a “radio play” based on Napoleon’s visit to the museum in 1811 which focused on the history of the museum and key exhibits.

We followed the “Napoleon tour”, which took about half an hour, and then had a more detailed look around, concentrating on particular areas of interest.

Just a few of the large collection of fossils

Humanoid skulls and bones

Fluorescent minerals

The large electrostatic generator. They had smaller examples to see as well.

The Oval room was one of the highlights. Originally this was the whole museum! It’s lit only by natural light that comes in through the skylights – so it’s probably best to visit on a bright summer’s day!

It was difficult to get a shot that really shows off the room, so I resorted to embedding a picture from Wikipedia which was taken from the balcony, which isn’t accessible to the public.

By Teylers Museum, Haarlem, the Netherlands, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl, Link (source: Wikipedia)

A painting in one of the art galleries shows what the room looked like in 1800, with the large electrostatic generator in the centre.

A large horseshoe magnet supporting 100 kg

An early electric battery

An astronomical globe

The two art galleries were also lit by natural light

The collection mainly features works from the Dutch Romantic School and the later Hague School and Amsterdam Impressionists.

Wintergezicht met Schaatsers (1864) by Johan Barthold Jongkind

De Molen (1899) by Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch

Twee dienstboden op een Amsterdamse brug bij avond (1890) George Hendrik Breitner

Trommelslaagster (c 1908) by Isaac Israels

Like many other galleries and museums in the Netherlands there was a temporary exhibition marking 250 years since the death of Rembrandt. It featured prints by the master and some of his contemporaries.

As usual, I was bowled over by the beauty and the amazing detail of Rembrandt’s tiny prints. One of them had been blown up and covered the whole of one wall. Even on such a large scale the detail was amazing.

And this was the real thing, which, even though it is the largest of his landscape prints, was not even as big as an A3 sheet of paper

The newest part of the museum, an exhibition hall and a cafe, were built in 1996 and are airy, cantilevered spaces on two sides of a “secret” courtyard / garden.

It was time for some refreshment!

the Dutch know how to make mint tea!

We’d spent more than a couple of hours in the museum so had a last look around before returning our audio guides and leaving the building to meet up with our son and daughter, who’s been spending some time together.

Teylers is an excellent museum and I suspect we’ll be paying a visit another time when we next visit Haarlem.

Back to Haarlem

Last week we were back in Haarlem, to visit our daughter while taking a few days break. As usual, we managed to pack a lot into the week – spending some time exploring the small, historic city, watching some live music acts (the Haarlem Jazz Festival started towards the end of our little holiday), taking in some art in Amsterdam and even managing a short walk on the dunes.

We caught the plane from Manchester. Unfortunately there was a dealy which meant we were sat on the plane for over an hour and a half before it took off. Not the greatest experience, but it could have been worse. So we arrived in Haarlem a couple of hours late. It’s quite easy to get to the city by catching the Number 300 bis that runs from Schipol airport to the train station in Haarlem, a 40 minute journey with buses about every 10 minutes during the daytime. We’d rented a house a few minutes walk from the station, so after picking up the keys we were soon settled in.

The next morning we spent the morning wandering around Haarlem. The Single canal was just a couple of minutes walk from our little house. The canal was built as part of the city defences and the northern section zig zags – a defensive arrangement. The city walls used to stand on an embankment to the south of this section of the canal but they were dismantled many years ago as the city expanded northwards and a park created where they used to stand. We followed the path along the canal bank through the park.

We spent the rest of the morning mooching around the pleasant streets in the city centre before grabbing a bite to eat in the cafe on the top floor of the Hudson Bay department store

from where there are good views over the city.

The building that the Hudson Bay store occupies was built in the 1930’s for the Vroom en Dreesman store. It’s architecture is modernist in style with Amsterdam School and Art Deco influences. It’s something of a Marmite building – you either love it or hate it – I fall into the former camp! V and D went bust in 2015 and the building was unoccupied the first time we visited Haarlem, but it was taken over by Hudson Bay (a Canadian company) who opened there in 2018.

There are some rather nice stained glass windows in the stairwell and on some of the floors

After we’d eaten we wandered through the shopping streets down to the Spaarn and made our way to the Tyler’s Museum. Our visit there warrants its own post so to finish this one, here’s a few photos I took around the town (some taken later in the week).

Huis Marseille

There are two photography museums in central Amsterdam – Huis Marseille and Foam – both on the Keizersgracht. Huis Mareille is the longest established and is located in a couple of adjacent 17th Century canal houses. During our day in Amsterdam at the end of December we decided we’d visit to see the current exhibition of work by African photographers and also to have a look at the buildings. I’d have liked to have visited Foam as well, but time was limited. I’ll have to save that for another time.

Amsterdam’s first photography museum was opened in 1999 in the old canal house, Huis Marseille, at Keizersgracht 401. The house, which was
built around 1665, was originally owned by a French merchant called Isaac Focquier, who named the house after the French port he must have known. In September 2013, the exhibition space was was extended by incorporating the house next door, at Keizersgracht 399. Although adapted as modern exhibition spaces, both houses still include original features, such as the ceiling stuccowork in the entrance hall and a painting on the ceiling of the Garden Room.

There’s a garden at the back of the house with an 18th Century “garden house” which has been renovated and also used as an exhibition space.

The exhibition, Recent Histories, features images by African photographers from the museum’s own collection and also works from the Walther Collection (New York/Neu-Ulm).

The museum website tells us that

Until the last decade of the 20th century African photography was generally seen in the context of travel and ethnological photography, and usually done by Westerners.

but this exhibition reveals different aspects and interpretations of the continent by 15 African photographers, particularly

the influences that social, economic, and political developments are having on landscape, public space, architecture, and daily life, and what these developments mean for their own identity.

I didn’t have time to make any detailed notes or to take too many snaps of the images (always seems odd, photographing photographs!) However, my favourites were probably the photographs of buildings by Mame-Diarra Niang , who, although she was born in Lyon, and lives in Paris, was raised between Ivory Coast, Senegal and France.  The photos were from her series Metropolis, shot in Johannesburg and At the Wall, taken during taxi journeys in Dakar. I really liked the way that some of the photos looked more like abstract paintings than images of real buildings.

Haarlem’s hidden gardens

Walking from the train station towards the Grote Markt in Haarlem, on the right on the Kruisstraat  at the beginning of the busy shopping centre, it’s hard to miss, visible through a monumental wrought-iron gate, a pleasant green courtyard surrounded on three sides by houses. This is the Hofje van Oorschot . Hofjes were groups of alms houses founded to provide homes for elderly women.

As the wealthy merchants during the Dutch Golden Age were pious Calvinists who eschewed showing off their wealth (in principle, at least), who wanted to guarantee their place in paradise by performing a charitable act and show to the world just how godly they were (and also, no doubt as a way of showing of their wealth and leaving their mark on posterity) many of them would found Hofjes which would usually be named after them. Hofjes have continued to be built over the years. In the 18th century they were founded for commercial purposes with the inhabitants paying rent. The most recent one in Haarlem was built as recent as 2007.

The occupants were women only. Elderly men were considered incapable of looking after themselves. Instead, they were admitted to “old people’s homes” where they had a room in a communal building. One example is today occupied by the Frans Hals Museum which we visited back in February last year. The design of the home – surrounding a courtyard garden, – is essentially the same as that of the Hofjes.

There are Hofjes in a number of towns in the Netherlands, but Haarlem is particularly noted for them with more than 21 scattered around the old town centre. Not that they are all as immediately obvious as the Hofje van Oorschot – most of them are hidden away behind walls in the old lanes and streets.

We picked up a copy of the leaflet from the Tourist Information Office in the Town Hall on the Grote Markt which showed the location of many of the Hofjes and gives a suggested walking route around them.

The Hofjes are usually built in a U-shape with a yard or garden in the middle, and a gate as entrance. There’s often a community kitchen garden with a water pump. The houses are still occupied and the although many of the courtyards can be viewed, there are restrictions on visiting hours – they are closed during weekends and public holidays so were not accessible for most of the time we were in Haarlem. But we managed to see several of them, mainly on our last day in the town (our flight home was at 9:15 in the evening). It was a cold day, though, so we didn’t complete the route. But I expect we’ll be back in Haarlem before too long so we’ll have chance to see the rest at some stage!

Two of the Hofjes – the oldest and the newest – were between the canal and the Wijde Appelaarsteeg, only a short walk from the Dutch house we were staying in.

Hidden behind a gate on the Bakenessergracht

was an alley (or ginnel as we would say in Northern England)

which led to the Hofje van Bakenes the oldest in the Netherlands, founded in 1395.

Another ginnel connect this, the oldest Hofje, with the newest – the Johan Enschedé Hof.

Here’s a few more photos I took during our tour on our last day. Not all of the courtyards were accessible and I could only photograph the doorways, but we certainly got a good feel of what they were about. You had to seek them out – the entrances weren’t always obvious – but it was worth the effort. As it was a cold, grey, winter’s day, my photos don’t do justice to the Hofjes – the gardens were relatively bare and the light wasn’t great for showing off the buildings. It would be good to revisit during the Spring or Summer when there would be more colour.