Day 1 & 2

Our first taste of Europe is Haarlem, a small, quiet town.  Paul and I flew in from London where we had spent several days touring on our own.  We had done quite well there as everyone spoke English, now we cannot read any of the signs and we had to find our bus to Haarlem.  It took some time to locate bus #300 but we did it, boarded the bus, tried to figure out what stop to get off at and picked the wrong one!!  With the help of a map in one of our books, we were finally able to locate our hotel, dragging our luggage around behind us - which reminds me of one of Rick's main mantra's - PACK LIGHT!!  We checked into our hotel and headed out for some lunch.  Using our guide book, we located the large V&D Department store that also has a huge eatery inside called La Place.  The book mentioned that you can go up to the roof area to eat which allows you to overlook the entire town so that is exactly what we did and enjoyed a panoramic view of Haarlem while having a delicious lunch.

That evening we gathered to meet our group in our lovely hotel, the Joops Hotel.  Our tour guide will be Ferdi and he took some time to go over what we should expect during our tour and then we headed out to see the town and get to know our travel companions.

Our walking tour of Haarlem was with a local guide named Hans.  He took us throughout the town, pointing out the brickwork in front of the stores in shapes to indicate what type of business it was.  This was done because many of the people long ago were illiterate so they relied on symbols rather than the written word.  He explained why there are different types of bricks on the walkways and why their money is in all different shapes and sizes – to help the blind citizens get around and be able to identify their money.  We also saw our first “Coffee shop” or marijuana store.  Soft drugs are tolerated in the Netherlands and they are VERY liberal in their thinking and acceptance of different ways of life, especially homosexuality and nudity.  He not only gave us a brief history of the town but also covered what life is like today.  

After our walking tour we were on our own for dinner.  We immediately clicked with a couple, Bruce and Barbara, and their grandson, Jeff.  Ferdi had recommended a Steak House, sounds safe and American, near our hotel so we headed that way.  We had a wonderful meal with our new friends served by a friendly and highly entertaining waiter.  Even though we aren't in Italy yet, we hit the local gelato stand to get a head start on our gelato consumption.  Then it was back to the hotel to prepare for an early morning tomorrow.