Haarlem and Amsterdam

An adorable side street in Haarlem.
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Our first day in Europe!  In the Netherlands!  And Mom has a migraine.

I spent the morning alone while Mom recovered.  First, I learned how to eat a Dutch breakfast. The delicious koffe is richer and stronger than ours, served in little teacups, and apparently it's sinful to add cream or sugar. Food consists of bread, meat, and cheese, which you layer however, maybe with Nutella or jam. Lots of Nutella. You can also scatter sprinkles in chocolate or fruit flavors. Or you can have granola/cereal with sweet yogurt.  And of course, since we were in Europe, no water.

Typical Dutch apartments overlooking a canal.
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After stealing some food for Mom, I left the hostel and headed into Haarlem. The grocery store was my first stop.  They're similar to American supermarkets, but with more high quality fresh foods.  The Dutch are also very environmentally conscious and everyone brings their own reusable bags.  I bought a bike lock and some bungee cords, if you were curious, and kept walking towards the center of town for some shopping.

After the postcard store and a department store similar to CVS and Walgreens, I was exasperated with my nonexistant understanding of Dutch and decided to sightsee instead of shop.  I think the most exciting part of my morning was when someone thought I knew what I was doing and asked me for directions. And my favorite part of Haarlem was the cute side street leading to a harbor lined with wind turbines.

The bike garage at Amsterdam's Centraal Station.
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biked to haarlem station, amsterdam, walked along canals looking for red light district, shopping, torture museum, bought cheese and chicken and bread and stroopwafels, ate, walk in haarlem, read, slept