October 8th: Haarlem

Two weeks ago, after some consulting in my guidebooks, I decided my next excursion should be to Haarlem.


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Haarlem's a very old city and the capital city of the province I live in. More than once it's burned completely to the ground and been rebuilt, and it's been under siege and changed hands multiple times over the past half century. Fun fact: after one of the massive fires, in 1351, it was rebuilt in a square shape to resemble Jerusalem.

I got there on a moody, grey-skied day. That, and the fact that it was a Monday--the Dutch basically consider Monday part of the weekend, lazy bastards--meant the streets were fairly quiet.

Did you spot that steeple in the background above?

Well, at one point you come around a corner and see this in the distance:

You can't tell by the picture, but that church is still a fair ways off.

It's the Sint-Bavokerk, a former Catholic cathedral turned Protestant after the Dutch turned their backs on their Spanish overlords, and it's friggin' massive.

It's stood in its present form for about 500 years. The church was first built in the 1300s, I guess, because it's mentioned as being seriously damaged in a fire in 1328. It then says the church was rebuilt over the next 150 years. (150 years?!)

Actually, considering the size of the thing, that's a pretty reasonable time period.

After a bit, the thought entered my head that the size of the church is almost obscene. There is no other building in the entire city that even approaches it. The churches here are beautiful, and they certainly give each town its own distinctive look, but at a certain point you wonder what the proportion of resources was that went into building churches as opposed to, say, schools and hospitals.

Inside is supposed to be one of the world's greatest organs. However, it cost 3 euros to go inside and I just didn't feel like paying.

The rest of the city was nice but nothing else really stood out for me. Part of it was the crappy weather, and I also just wasn't really in the sightseeing mood. So I'm going to group everything together here, in a little segment I'll call "Steeples and Such".

(Just to point one thing out: the statue above is on the town hall, and it's a topless female with a scale in one hand and a huge sword in the other. You be the judge of what that symbolizes.)

After walking around the streets I had to use the bathroom.

You know, it's unbelievable how hard it is to find a public washroom that you don't have to pay for. In all the train stations, museums, shopping malls, you always have to fork over pocket change to a lady sitting at the entrance; they actually pay people to sit there and take coins from people who are going to the bathroom.

Well, I didn't have any change on me. And so as I walked around, legs semi-crossed, I fulminated about the fact that in a country which loves its social safety net, located in the middle of a welfare-lovin' continent, the most basic service possible isn't provided.

Sure, we'll pay for your education...but if you need to take a piss, well, open up the wallet, pal.

The only spot I can consistently find a washroom I don't have to pay for, and this was the case in Haarlem, is that egalitarian, socialist paradise known as McDonalds.

Anyway, after my quest ended, this is the bench where I sat down, ate a sandwich, and read my book for a while. Then I went home.