From Amsterdam a mere hop on the train takes you about 20km west to Haarlem. The compactness of the center of the town belies the fact that there are about 150,000 inhabitants. We found our very wonderful B&B to be located in a beautiful canal house from the late 1800’s or turn of the 19th century, three very tall stories high, and directly on one of Haarlem’s central canals.
We dropped off our luggage, stopped off for a warm drink and then found our way to the gorgeous Frans Hals Museum, which occupies a building that was a 17th century almshouse (although rather unusually, this one was for men). Unassuming from the outside despite its shutters and low gables, the museum houses a treasure trove of Dutch art, focusing on some of the best-known work by Hals: a series of portraits he made of local patricians, painted in the 17th century when having your portrait painted gave you serious status. The museum also houses work of his apprentices and some of the initial landscape painters in Holland, as well as some amusing pieces collectively titled “The Five Senses”. My favorite, however, is a tremendously detailed work by Pieter Brueghel the Younger which incorporates about 70 proverbs that were current at the time, aptly called “Proverbs”. While many are not translatable, some definitely are, and quite a few are still used in contemporary Dutch.
We enjoyed a wonderful evening with a Dutch childhood friend of mine and her husband , and caught up on all manner of world news, as well as what turned out to be the final soccer game for the oranje team, a disappointing albeit deserved loss to the Portuguese team.
On the following day we wandered for hours through Haarlem’s old center, first following a pamphlet detailing different monuments around town, and later in the day visiting the dozens of hofjes (almshouses). Haarlem is well-known for its almshouses which were originally built by wealthy citizens to house or shelter elderly women in need. They were generally built around central courtyard gardens. The regents famously painted by Hals ran these almshouses and determined who would be permitted to live there. Today the almshouses are still populated by single or widowed elderly women, who form small communities within each hofje. Today each tiny home has been updated on the inside, and while small, is comfortable. The vast majority lie behind doors that conceal the small and often exquisite little worlds behind them. Each time again, it’s like stumbling into another century, and invariably into a small haven of peace away from the nearby bustle of the town.
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