Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Best View:
At
La Place
(top-f loor c a feter ia of
the V&D department
store—see page 237), you
get wraparound views of
the city as you sip your €2
self-serve tea.
Best Ice Cream:
Gelater ia
Bartoli
(on the south side
of the Grote Kerk) is the local favorite.
self-gUided WalK
Welcome to Haarlem's Market Square
Haarlem's market square (Grote Markt), where 10 streets converge,
is a
ss
sight and the town's delightful centerpiece...as it has been
for 700 years. To enjoy a coffee or
beer here, simmering in Dutch
good living, is a quintessential
European experience. In a recent
study, the Dutch were found to
be the most content people in
Europe; in another study, the
people of Haarlem were found
to be the most content in the
Netherlands. Observe. Sit and
gaze at the church, appreciating
essentially the same scene that Dutch artists captured centuries
ago in oil paintings that now hang in museums.
Just a few years ago, trolleys ran through the square, and cars
were parked everywhere. But today, it's a pedestrian zone, with
market stalls filling the square on Mondays and Saturdays, and
café tables dominating on other days.
This is a fun place to build a picnic with Haarlem finger foods—
pickled herring (take-away stand on the square), local cheese
(Gouda and Edam—tasty shop a block away on Barteljorisstraat),
french fries with mayonnaise (recommended old-time fries place
behind the church on Warmoesstraat),
stroopwafels
(waffles with
built-in syrup), and
poffertjes
(little sugar doughnuts, cooked on the
spot, great seating on the square).
• Overseeing the square is the...
L. J. Coster Statue:
Forty years before Gutenberg invented
movable type, this man carved the letter
A
out of wood, dropped
it into some wet sand, and saw the imprint it left. He got the
idea of making movable type out of wood (and later, he may have
tried using lead). For Haarlemmers, that was good enough, and
