The Netherlands: Harlingen in Friesenland

We are in The Netherlands after a flight from Dublin of about an hour and a half. We picked up our rental car (this time with automatic transmission and navigation, bliss!) and drove for an hour and fifteen minutes to get to our first destination – the town of Harlingen in Friesenland, right on the North Sea.

Why Harlingen? We had been here once before during a five country in ten days adventure ten years ago. That time we landed in Harlingen on Easter Sunday so nothing was open. However, we thought the town was really picturesque and interesting so wanted to return and here we are.

Our hotel is in a quaint old building on the Noorderhaven canal, oddly enough right next door to where we stayed ten years ago. Buildings are old and are not retrofitted with modern conveniences, thus no elevator or air conditioning. In the Netherlands, buildings are also narrow but deep because back in the day taxes were based on your frontage. Stairways are steep with very narrow treads making it even more fun to climb the two flights to our room. But the room itself is large and has a lovely deck where I can sit and paint. One other quirk of this particular room is that the private bathroom is not in the room although we have a washbasin.

The hotel does not include breakfast in their price. However, our congenial hotel owner tipped us off to the deal of our trip. Hema (a sort of general store) that is just across the canal from us, has a breakfast deal of five items for €2. And, we found out, if you buy two breakfasts, you get them discounted to €3 for both!

The Dutch people speak English very well so it is easy to communicate. But, for whatever reason, Harlingen is not on the tourist map for English speakers. Almost everyone we have talked to has said what a surprise it is for Americans to be here. Apparently, most of their tourists are German, whose language is similar to Dutch.

Picturesque Harlingen

The town is much as we remembered except larger than we realized. Our original plan was to use Harlingen as a home base for some other exploration (hence the car). We were going to check out the Friday cheese auction in Alkmaar as well as the Zuidersee Open Air Museum. However, once we understood the program of events for the festival, those plans were scrapped in favor of staying in town. Our reasoning was that the Alkmaar cheese auction happens every Friday from May-September so we are far more likely to have another opportunity at that than for Visserij Dagen (Fishery Days). More on Visserij Dagen can be found at http://europeyourway.net/netherlands-festival

For now, please enjoy the following images of beautiful and charming Harlingen. I’ve already started a painting based on one day of walking around this pretty place!