Trekking through Europe: Haarlem, Netherlands
During my 2017 Europe adventure with my friend, we decided to take a day trip to Haarlem, a city in the Netherlands. We were staying in Delft and took a train to Haarlem. In Haarlem, we walked around the medieval like city with cobblestone roads and churches in the middle of the town square. We made it to the town hall and walked around the outside of the Cathedral of St. Bavo. I believe the cathedral was closed, but seeing the architecture and the outside of the building was just magnificent. Also, it did not bother us too much since we had seen plenty of churches and cathedrals already in Europe. One thing that Europe has a lot of are churches!
We then took a tour of the De Adriaan windmill, which allowed us to go to the top of the windmill to look out over the historic city! The windmill is on the edge of a river and is actually a replica of the original windmill since the original had burned down. A lot of structures in Europe seem to be replicas. A lot of things were burnt down due to fires or wars and then rebuilt. The original windmill had many uses — it ground tobacco, products to make cement and paint, and corn. I really liked the tour of this windmill, and it was neat to go up. Just make sure you are ready to go up and down the windmill using a ladder!
After the windmill tour, we found Teylers Museum. The collections in this museum are just amazing! There is artwork, fossils, coins, toys, telescopes, and more! I definitely enjoyed spending a leisurely day in Haarlem!
