Haarlem, Holland

I spent this past weekend with CSM friends, we had a few days off for Easter and comp days from our retreat. We decided to head to Holland for the long weekend, and had a great time. Our first stop was in Haarlem, a town just west of Amsterdam.

The streets of Haarlem...

We counted 9 old fashioned windmills as we drove throughout the Netherlands.

The canals throughout the city... I think Haarlem and Amsterdam are similar to New Orleans, in the sense that the city is below sea level and relies on levy/canal systems.

Around the Grote Market Square in downtown Haarlem. There were lots of open air cafes and restaurants full of people. We enjoyed dinner and breakfast on the square. It made for some interesting people watching too : ) Amsterdam is the bike capital of the world. Everywhere we went, we saw people riding on bicycles. It was actually quite impressive... people were dressed really nice (dresses and high heels) and they made bike riding in a crowded city look way too easy.

Holland's an interesting county where many things are legal, that aren't legal in other places. Two of those things being prostitution and marijuana. We managed to avoid the red light district, but we did come across some "coffee shops." These aren't your typical coffee houses - they serve "special" brownies. lol. It's hard to make out, but the green sign here says cannabis shop. As we walked around the city, we occasionally got some strong whiffs of pot smoke.

We ended up not venturing into Amsterdam. We'd planned to, but that was before we realized that Friday and Monday were national holidays and the city was going to be beyond packed. We decided to save Amsterdam for another day.

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Instead, we spent time with my friend's friend from Bible college, who lives on a small island an hour and a half south of Amsterdam. It was a really fun experience to spend time with two wonderful Godly women over Easter weekend. We visited their church with them on Sunday morning. An although the entire service was in Dutch (we recognized two songs!), it was fun to worship with other believers. I thought it was a special time. I walked away encouraged. I noticed that many Dutch towns had a beautiful old church - but so many sit empty. Knowing the prostitution and drug problems across the country, it seems that God is dead to so many people. It's a very secular society (just like many places across Europe). It was encouraging to know that there are Dutch people on fire for the Lord and seek to make Him known.

The North Sea - England's on the other side.

Our hosts fixed us many wonderful Dutch specialties - I forget what these were called, but they were like mini-pancakes you put butter and powdered sugar on.

More tulip fields, on the island.