About 3.5 hours of south-westerly travel later, we arrived in Haarlem, a pretty little suburban town just west of Amsterdam. We hopped on the bus and were checking into our hostel a mere 20 minutes later. A nice-enough hostel (actually the only hostel in Haarlem!) although filled with clientele considerably older than usually found in hostels… we went back to the city centre to wander around the historic market area and get a bite to eat on an outdoor patio. Another sun-filled and beautiful day…More walking, more bicycles, and another stop for Heineken and “frites” with that scrumptious mayonnaise-like “fritesaus” that puts ketchup to shame. I wanted to hoard some, but Ang reminded me that Amsterdam would have lots of its own…
Back to the hostel to see what Monday-night fun could be had in the onsite bar… alas… none… at first we were the only people there, and later we were joined by a group of sexagenarians. In despair, we ordered another few (amazingly cheap) pints. And then, a miracle: one fellow our age appeared, ordered a pint, and came to talk to us. Behold, a fellow Canadian! A Montrealer! The night was looking up... He ended up cajoling and/or bribing the bartender to let us buy bottled beer and take it into the front lobby over-night, so that we could watch Canadian hockey on the internet… we had a blast. What else can I say?
One very brief night’s sleep later, we stumbled to the kitchen for the hostel’s complimentary breakfast. I was expecting instant coffee and toast; what we got was a virtual feast! Dutch cheese, sliced chicken and ham, hagelslaag, fresh bread, cappuccino from a machine, milk, OJ, and Dutch breakfast cake (yummy stuff!) A good start to the day. We had wanted to visit the Keukenhoff but decided it would be too much of a rush to fit it in our itinerary… so we said goodbye to our new friend and asked him to send us pictures. Off to Amsterdam, the evil city!
