Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
to Europe for emigrants and immigrants (and their ideas) to and from all over Asia, Africa,
and the Americas. Based on lessons learned from their history, it seems the Dutch have
made a conscious decision to tolerate alternative lifestyles.
When I'm in the Dutch town of Haarlem, I'm struck by the harmony and compromise
people have worked out between tradition and modernity, virtuous lives and hedonistic
vices, affluence and simplicity. People live well—but in small apartments, getting around
by bike and public transit. While the frugal Dutch may keep the same old one-speed bike
forever, they bring home fresh flowers every day. The typical resident commutes by train
to glassy skyscrapers to work for giant corporations in nearby office parks, but no sky-
scraper violates Haarlem's downtown cityscape, which is still dominated by elegant old
gables and church spires. In Haarlem, the latest shopping malls hide behind Dutch Renais-
sance facades. Streets are clogged with café tables and beer-drinkers. The cathedral towers
over the market square with its carillon ringing out its cheery melody as policemen stroll
in pairs—looking more like they're on a date than on duty.
Two blocks behind the cathedral, a coffeeshop (a place that legally sells marijuana) is
filled with just the right music and a stoned clientele. People enjoying a particularly heavy
