Haarlem

Not so long ago I have spent the day in The Hague and liked it so much that I decided to have another day out of town - this time in Haarlem.
Haarlem is cutest little town only 15 minutes away from Amsterdam by train - beautifully preserved with old architecture and far more relaxed & cleaner as there are not so many tourists around. It is fairly easy to walk from central station to the centre of the city where huge cathedral towers over main square - I can easily imagine to live here quietly and work in Amsterdam as probably many people do.

My main focus was famous "Frans Hals Museum" located in a pretty,quiet district and situated in a beautiful old house that for centuries served as old people home & orphanage. Now,this might sound a little strange but everywhere i go,I always "feel" the place and this time again same thing happened - as I walked around the old house, the moment I entered a certain room I KNEW this used to be a dining room - I knew it for certain - asked staff about it and yes,it used to be a place where food was served. Not a glorious dinners but a poor soups and bread, meat once a year. Don't ask me how I know,I just felt it. Deja vù? Dreams? Was I supposed to be here again? Who knows?

Paintings were very pretty as I expected,lots of religious work and pretty portraits by local masters. Delightful Doll-House and collection of miniatures that wealthy people had in their homes. And a beautiful, beautiful courtyard that looked like entrance to another world.

Even better was Teylers Museum, the very first museum in The Netherlands - its really old-fashioned museum the way I liked it - art,science,technology,everything. First I saw the Fossils and skeletons from prehistoric era - huge jaw of Elephant found in Germany (?), a bear much bigger than today's living bears, fishes and insects caught in a stones, lots of wonderful and interesting things. Than famous "oval room" with many unusual technical machines, telescopes and all kind of raw gemstones. Than two wonderfully eclectic paintings galleries. And a temporary exhibition about climbing on top of Mount Blanc with a real top of the mountain exhibited under the glass. There was even a screen where you can take a picture with Mount Blanc in the background and sent it to friends as "greetings from Mount Blanc" - very cute & clever idea!

I really wonder why I never did these things when I lived here? Perhaps I was so focused on everyday life that it didn't appeal to me, I was probably only thinking about what I must do and my daily work routine,who knows? Now as a tourist, relaxed and with a lot of time on my hands I was inspired to explore a little bit more about out-of-town places and it was really a big pleasure,not complicated at all since The Netherlands is a small country & everything is very easy to reach with a train.You can really just hop on a train, spend a day somewhere and return back in the evening without being exhausted the way I felt when I was in London. It's almost a pity I am leaving now because I just had discovered several other places worth visit... but there will be here when I return for another visit, something to look forward to.