When folks hear that my elder son Phil lives in the Netherlands, most assume he lives in Amsterdam, the country's largest and most touristy city.
I’ll be blunt - Amsterdam is a wonderful city; however, visiting there has never been relaxing. The museum’s are fantastic and worth checking out, but note - you will not be alone. 20 MILLION people visit Amsterdam each year.
When the Netherlands briefly opened their country to US travelers in the summer and early fall of 2021, I immediately bought tickets for Pete and me to visit Phil. With Covid numbers still vacillating up and down, we needed a Dutch getaway destination with fewer crowds. It turned out, I found the perfect spot.
Intrigued?
Our ideal location was Haarlem. A city of approximately 165,000, this charming enclave is only 12 kilometers from Schiphol (Amsterdam) Airport. With the pandemic still raging worldwide and PCR testing mandatory to return to the US, the small city noted to be a “Dutch retirement community” sounded plenty safe.
Phil joined us for a week of exploring and relaxing at our spacious condo with a balcony at the perfect level for bird watching.
During the pandemic, I turned to using Airbnbs frequently since many hotels offered minimal services. Our Haarlem Airbnb was fantastic!
Haarlem is home to St. Bavokerk, a former Catholic cathedral where its stunning organ was first played by G.F. Handel before Mozart found himself at its keys a couple of decades later in 1766. Searching the web weeks before our arrival, I bought online tickets for an incredible concert held on the evening of our arrival. Enthralled by the music and gorgeous surroundings, there was no way Pete or I could fall asleep despite our jet lag.
Phil arrived our second day. We set off exploring the museums of Haarlem like the Franz Hals and Teyler’s Natural History museum (oldest in the Netherlands).
Traveler’s Tip: It’s worthwhile to purchase a MuseumKaart card if able to see multiple museums during your Dutch visit.
Once purchased at the Franz Hals, we used our pass for free entry to Teylers and the nearby Leiden Botanical Garden (oldest botanical garden in the Netherlands), easily making buying the pass a real value.
Haarlem is close to the sea. You can bike, train or bus to Strand Bloemendaal aan Zee. The Dutch are hardy folks and despite the wind and chill, folks were swimming. The three of us decided to enjoy happy hour beach side instead.
It is in Haarlem where we learned the most about the Dutch windmill and its history. You can’t miss the charming Adriaan windmill while strolling through this charming city. We took a tour of Adriaan, still grinding flour once a month. We learned from our tour guide that the Dutch learned the engineering behind windmills from the Afghans during the years of the Crusades (between 1095 and 1291). Original windmill technology is attributed to the Chinese. Windmills were critical to building the vast array of dikes found throughout the Netherlands where 26% of the country lies below sea level. Windmills were used to drain water (physically moved along as needed) to form usable land.
Haarlem is a wealthy community and you’ll find wonderful shops and plenty of dining spots. I highly recommend ZINI, located directly across from St. Bavo Church (presently a Reformed Protestant place of worship).
We left Haarlem to spend a couple of nights in Phil’s city of Groningen. In Sept, 2021, world travelers had to always be mindful of the upcoming PCR testing required for re entry into the US. Travelers had 72 hours to test negative before boarding their flight. The Netherlands was offering free PCR testing which Pete and I happily took advantage of; a decision which turned our zen vaca into an almost worst nightmare.
Thurs. Sept 2, 2021 - 3 days before flight time, Pete and I rode bikes to a designated center in Groningen for our free testing. Our clinician was professional and assured us that our test results would be available by the next morning (48 hours before flight time). Neither of us had ever been tested before but the experience wasn’t as bad as we feared.
Friday, Sept 3 - 48 hours before flight time - I awoke to an email declaring that my test was NEGATIVE!!! Big smiles, maybe even a happy jig. Pete looked at his phone and to his dismay; no email, no results. Suddenly the suspense seemed like a black cloud ready to bring a possible downpour. Still no results all day, Pete and I turned in early that evening hoping (ok, praying) for results in the morning.
Saturday Sept 4 - 24 hours until flight time - Still no results. With no time to waste Phil and Pete biked to the testing site Phil used previously for his flights back to the US. This time Pete’s test cost $100 USD out of pocket, but we would have happily paid three times that if it meant we would have our results in time.
Deeply concerned, we said our goodbyes to Phil and left Groningen for the two hour train ride to Schiphol mid afternoon. Despite the pandemic, we will always adhere to the travelers tip offered by our friend Willy
Traveler’s Tip: Get close to your departure airport the night before your flight. Particularly in the Netherlands; track work, suicides on the tracks, and train malfunctions can impact your travel by hours. Schiphol Airport hotels are wonderful! Reduce your travel stress by enjoying its hotels proximity and comfort.
15 hours before flight time - Pete and I stayed at the lovely Schiphol Hilton the evening before our flight. We were hitting happy hour hard trying to figure out what to do if his results didn’t come in or were POSITIVE. We agreed then and there that I would return home and he would enjoy his Dutch hotel stay for the next 10 days; a premise that sounded so grim we ordered another round.
9:30 pm- 10 hours until boarding - Pete finally saw an email on his phone. Both of us held our breath as he opened and read:
NEGATIVE!
The tremendous weight was finally lifted. Suddenly, we couldn’t wait to get home. Despite this being a fantastic trip, European Covid traveling felt extremely stressful.
Our flight home (with 30 other passengers) was smooth and uneventful. We felt extremely grateful to be able to travel again but thought we’d wait a while before trying an international destination again.
Ironically, the Netherlands shut their borders once again to US travelers shortly after our trip due to the rise of Covid cases in the country. PCR testing went from 72 hours pre-flight to 24 for many months following. Pandemic traveling wasn’t going to be easy again for quite some time it would appear.
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