Because the brewery I wanted to visit in Haarlem on the way to The Hague doesn’t open early in the morning, my day started at a reasonable hour — I left Amsterdam just before 10 a.m.
Cycling without a helmet, say in New York, makes you stand out like a black sheep — or a white crow, whichever metaphor you prefer. Here, it’s the opposite, but I’ve kept the habit of wearing one.
Arriving at Haarlem’s market square gave me a flashback to more than ten years ago — though I might have been confusing it with Delft’s. I’ll find out tomorrow, as my route passes through Delft.
Between Haarlem and The Hague lie the famous tulip fields, but I missed the bloom by about two weeks. Instead, I rode through dunes — not a bad trade-off.
It could have been a perfect cycling day: flat roads, no traffic, lovely scenery but there was very little sunshine, it was a bit windy, and just a tad cold. My Brompton was acting up with gear shifting, so I only had three gears to work with. I made a detour to a Brompton dealer in The Hague, but they weren’t much help — instead of checking it out, they just speculated about what might be wrong. In the end, I figured it out myself: it was the cable housing. It’s fine now.
I visited The Hague about ten years ago too, but it was just a quick pit stop en route to Amsterdam and didn’t leave much of an impression — kind of meh. This time, I had a few hours to explore it on foot, and I liked it. It’s less frenetic than Amsterdam but still has plenty of Dutch character and charm.
It was Friday night, and Kompaan Brewery — one I had on my list — was packed. Good thing I reserved a table in advance. I tried a couple of different brews, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. To finish things off, I treated myself to an ice cream from a reputable creamery.
I was planning to camp, but there were no campsites nearby, and the ones I found were actually more expensive than a hostel. So, I opted for a bed instead. Tomorrow, I’ll just play it by ear.
P.S. I forgot that although I’ve been to the Netherlands before, Greengo hasn’t — this makes it his 48th country!
Today in numbers:
83 km – distance cycled
1245 — Haarlem was granted city status
€38 — cost of a tent pitch vs €28 for the hostel
345 – pubs in The Hague