When I first heard of Haarlem from 
The original Haarlem is a town about 15 minutes train ride away from Amsterdam city centre. Compared to London, Amsterdam is smaller, and much easier to get around, thanks to it's excellent public transport system which puts London to shame.
CHURCHES
Coming out from the train station, I followed a few people and my instinct, which turned out correct. And within a few minutes, I was at Grote Markt, the plaza outside the Town Hall and the De Grote of St. Bavokerk Church. The style of the churches I saw here differed from the UK ones. I noticed they all had a crown shape object at the top of the tower, and it look like many extra building blocks were added around the building, almost as if they were playing lego and added bits when they felt like it. That said, it all seemed to blend in very nicely, giving each church a very unique style.
CANALS
No matter where you go, you're always going to see lots of canals in Netherlands, at least at the places I went to. That's what makes the country so pretty. There were loads of people who use the canal for leisure purposes, cruising up and down in their little boats, whilst people were sitting by the bank dining and sipping their glass of wine. The whole atmosphere is so relaxing, though I do wonder if this is just a tourist point of view of whether the Dutch life is really so relaxing?
One thing that I know would definitely stress me out if I lived here would be the parking. I would be so worried that I'd back into the canal if I had to park here 😗
And this sort of canal view is just so idyllic. It's the type of postcard that I could send you and you would instantly know where I am. I think the buildings would look so beautiful at Christmas time. Add some lights to it and you instantly have a stunning Christomas tree!
BIKES
Bicycles are another thing that are synonymous with the Netherlands. In UK there is a lot of road rage between motorists and cyclists as we don't have many dedicated cyclist routes. The situation is especially worse in large cities and often there are accidents and disputes between the two groups. In Amsterdam, I see so many cyclists zooming along, coexisting in harmny with the motorists, or was this another tourist view only?
COFFEE STOP
I only spent a few hours at Haarlem. There's a windmill a bit further away, but that's a rebuild and there's only one. I figured it wasn't worth the effort to go see that and I was planning to go some place else to see windmills. Plus, I was only in town for a few days, and wanted to see a few more other places.
After the canal walk, I went back into the busier area stolling around the pretty medieval town.
I found myself a nice cafe to chill out for a while to show off my sassy Converse and grab a cup of coffee before I bid farewll to Harleem.