(Haarlem, the Netherlands)
The weather in the Netherlands had improved enough on August 23 for us to embark on a small road trip to a nearby town. My favourite “mass market” Dutch cheese is Gouda (which naturally originates in the town of Gouda), but we decided to visit Edam instead as it is easily accessible from Haarlem.
There was a bit of a hiccup when we got to the Haarlem train station and discovered that the balances on our OV-Kaart (chip card for Dutch transportation) were quite a bit lower than we expected. This new ticket-free electronic system requires you to check in and check out every time you ride a bus or train. We apparently forgot to check out once, so we were charged the maximum national fare for what was a very short trip from Amsterdam to Haarlem.
One of my friends had warned me that this system was very tourist-unfriendly but until now everything had been OK. Alas, rectifying the problem cannot be done by a train system employee (even though they are able to track exactly what happened). Instead, you need to call a special phone number (for which you pay a per-minute rate) and, if accepted, you will receive a refund cheque in the mail. In Euros, of course, and apparently only in the Netherlands. This is obviously not very practical if you don’t live in the Netherlands and don’t use Euros at home.
The need to maintain such a large minimum balance on the chip card for any train trip is also tourist-unfriendly and discourages use of the train by tourists who are about to leave the country. This was all very frustrating but we tried not to let it bother us too much. Edam itself was quaint (only 7,500 residents) and not nearly as busy as Amsterdam, even though it was a summer weekend. One important specialty store was open, however, and I was able to pick up a special surprise for my sister’s upcoming birthday.
We visited the square where the (now purely ceremonial) weekly cheese-weighing takes place, as well as the town’s huge church. Here, we spent some time looking at the gravestones and learning a little bit of Edam history.
Cemeteries are often a great way to learn more about another country; we don’t necessarily go looking for them, but we also don’t avoid them if we happen to encounter one when we are exploring. Not surprisingly, I didn’t see any relatives in the graveyard here. The distance from here to the ‘s-Gravenzande area is minimal by today’s standards but it would have been massive in the 17th century.
As Edam appeared to be geared primarily towards day tourists, we decided to return to Haarlem for dinner. There are a lot of dining options here and I expect to devote a post to Dutch dining in the near future. There are also lots of dessert options: most restaurant menus include appelgebak (a substantial apple pie) but it is also quite easy to find take-out gelato and waffle places. This suited my wife and I perfectly, as these are two of our favourite desserts.
Tomorrow (August 24) will be our last full day in the Netherlands before returning home. Our plans will depend on the weather; we would like to do a canal cruise if the rain stays away. There is also a museum with a special exhibition on vinyl records in the Netherlands – this is our back-up plan. Either way, we’ll also spend some time shopping, as clothes here tend to fit us better than the clothes back home.