Haarlem

We decided to go to Haarlem after wandering Amsterdam in the early morning so we could kill some more morning time on the train. It was a little confusing figuring out which train to get on but after asking a few workers we hopped on and were on our way!

Ryan looks like he’s thinking of some deep stuff right here. He had no idea I took a photo until after I showed him 😉

Even after the 40 minute train ride, we were still one of the very few walking around the city. We took our sweet time, knowing none of the museums would be open, and soaked in all the beautiful scenery and buildings!

Seriously though, these buildings are to die for. I love the white, and black, and brick combo. Every single one is unique but they all come together perfectly. Below you can see one of the bridges between the canals turned to the side as a boat drives through.

We had grabbed some stroop waffles at one of the few places open in Amsterdam and they were our fuel the whole day. We decided to walk to the farthest museum first and then make our way back. We walked and walked and it started raining, and Ryan – our navigator – was getting super frustrated because he couldn’t find it anywhere. We walked for probably an hour and a half until we started walking back and then realized we had walked way too far and off the map we had!

The funniest part was that museum still had 30 minutes left before it opened, so we found a bench, sat on Ryan’s coat, and ate more stroop waffles until it was time. Our feet were exhausted!

It was the Frans Hals Museum, a painter that lived in Haarlem during it’s prime. They had a nice video and we enjoyed learning to pick out his painting style. His style was very lively, and the expressions he could create on each person was amazing. You could almost read their minds and know what they were thinking. Some workers were digitally analyzing one of the paintings right there in the museum which was cool to see.