K Pitty in the City: Haarlem

* One note - I've mailed my camera back to the US to be fixed, which is going to take about 6 weeks. I've been using disposable cameras to take photos, but I think my blog is way more interesting with pictures, so I've downloaded some pictures of what I've been doing from the internet... just wanted to give the disclaimer that these are NOT my photos! :)

Where to begin? What a beautiful, charming little city. I decided that this was to be my weekend destination about halfway through the week, mostly because it's pretty close to Amsterdam (about 45 minutes by train, which was how I decided to go), and because it came with strong recommendations from a few friends that live here.

I arrived in Haarlem around 12:15 by train. The train station was absolutely beautiful - decorated in Art Nouveau... it reminded me of a lot of the subway stops in New York City. Anyways, believe it or not, I didn't get lot on my walk to my first destination, which was the "Grote Kerk", or Great Church. First, I took a minute to walk around the bustling market that was going on in the city's Market Square. You can buy a wide assortment of things there - anything from knock-off watches to a wheel of cheese! I think that made me hungry, because I stopped for lunch at a small cafe. I had a traditional Dutch meal - the pannenkoeken, which is basically a large crepe with whatever toppings you want on it, kind of like a pizza! It was yummy!

Pannenkoeken

After that, I toured the Grote Kerk. This church was built from 1390 to 1540. It was amazing inside... the ceiling is made of strips of cedar, and the floors are made from old gravestones - yes, that's right. The wealthy members of the church were originally buried right there in the floor - evidently that is where the term "stinking rich" comes from! :) The most impressive item in the church was the organ, which is Holland's largest. It has over 5000 pipes!

Grote Kerk

The impressive organ

The interior of the church

After touring the church, I decided to visit the oldest museum in Holland, which is called Teyler's Museum. This place has all kinds of interesting things in it - fossils, 18th and 19th century "technology", all preserved the way they were preserved when the musuem originally opened - in 1784!! The museum also was hosting an exhibit on the Italian architect Piranesi, who I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I didn't really know before today... but I've definitely seen his work. He inspired artists like M.C. Escher, and in fact, when I saw the piece of art below, I thought it was an Escher piece. Anyways, I learned a lot about this man, and it was actually very interesting. He did many, many drawings/plans for buildings, but only ONE of them ever was actually built.

The exterior of Teyler's Museum, on the Spaarne River

One of Piranesi's Works

My last stop was the Ten Boom House, which was a safe house for Jews during World War II. I almost didn't stop here, because my favorite tour guide, Rick Steves, didn't recommend this place very strongly, but I've always had a lot of curiosity about WWII and the Holocaust, so I decided I should say "screw Rick" this time and do what interested me instead of looking at a bunch of paintings of people that are dead now like he recommended. :) Anyways, it was time well spent. Growing up in the US, WWII and the Holocaust are mentioned in history classes, but you never really see or feel the impact of what something of this nature was like, since it wasn't actually happening in the States. I've been to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, and this one was way more impactful to me. The basic story is this - a middle class, Christian family named the Ten Boom's decided that they needed to do something about the fact that the Germans were taking all the Jews in town to concentration camps. (on a side note - what a sad fact - 80% of Dutch Jews died in concentration camps during WWII. They truly believed that they were going to "work camps", and so most went willingly instead of trying to hide. This fact brought tears to my eyes). Anyways, the Ten Boom's became a part of the "Dutch Underground", which tried to help Jews hide from the Gestapo and the Nazi Party. The Ten Boom's hid about 4 Jews at a time, all in a small "room" that was hidden in the youngest daughter's bedroom. The room was about 1 foot by 5 feet - not very big. At one point during the war, someone gave the family away. The Jews hid in the secret room, and stayed there for two and a half days. They were never found, but the Ten Boom family was taken away to German prison, and eventually to concentration camps. Only the youngest daughter, Corrie, survived. She wrote a book, The Hiding Place, which I purchased and am looking forward to reading. It's hard to put into words how I felt at this place, but, trust me, I had a hard time holding back tears. Realizing that this was pretty recent history makes it even worse. It's hard to imagine how something like this can happen. It was one of the most powerful museums I've ever been to. So there, Rick Steves!