Haarlem

Because the Netherlands is such a small country, it's hard to go there and only visit Amsterdam. Therefore, we spent a long afternoon in the tenth century town of Haarlem, which is between Amsterdam and the beaches of Zandvoort and Bloemendaal.

I felt like there were barely any tourists in this town; it seemed like I was the only one with a camera out the whole time.

This town really was out of a story book. I can't believe people actually live here.

Forget coco-puffs!

That's the St. Bavo's Church, built in 1313.

On the other side of the church is the Grote Markt, which is one of the most beautiful town squares in all of Europe (according to my guidebook). On a warm October afternoon, it seemed as if the entire town was enjoying the golden hour with pints of Belgian beer, and I don't blame them.

We went into a bar on the other side of this square to enjoy a few drinks as well. The crowd was 40+, the atmosphere was jolly, and there was what I will call (for the sake of mediocre travel writing) traditional Dutch music being performed by a seventy year old man.

After about twenty minutes, we realized that not only were we the only two people wearing backpacks in the bar, but we were the only people part of a cash transaction. After some close observation, it was clear that every person in the bar knew the bartenders on a first name basis, and the bartenders were literally keeping tabs in a huge leather bound book near the glasses. It was amazing; I've never seen anything like that before.

Even though we were clearly outsiders, we weren't treated like it. Everyone was so comfortable, and being in those situations makes me love the Dutch even more!

As I've probably said before, in the Netherlands bikes are used for so much. I've seen women riding bikes with one kid on the back of their bike, one in the front, a bag of groceries on their shoulder and a cigarette in their mouth - all while remaining perfectly in control. In Haarlem in particular, many (many!) people were riding their bikes while singing out loud! If that doesn't make you feel instantly happy on a beautiful fall afternoon, I don't know what will!

If you're not already impressed, imagine witnessing this: two garbage men (unfortunately I don't have the new "politically correct" term) in the red were picking up the trash bags from the street. And yes, the trash bags were supposed to be there, because this town was built before urban planning, thus, the development of alleys into cities for the use of, for one thing, garbage disposal. Anyway, the man in a blue, a complete civilian to my knowledge, just stops his walk and helps them! They share some friendly conversation and they both go on their way. You'd never see this in Chicago!