Jul 14, 2026
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Haarlem’s Hidden Golden Age
Discover authentic Dutch charm just 15 minutes from Amsterdam, minus the tourist crowds.
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Love Netherlands
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Dear Netherlands,
There’s an old saying in the Netherlands: God made the world, but the Dutch made Holland. Drive across Zeeland, past the Delta Works, and you start to understand. Or stand at Kinderdijk at sunrise, when the windmills catch the first light and the canals are mirror-flat, and you can feel 800 years of stubbornness built into the landscape.
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Photo via Love Netherlands
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In today’s email:
- Haarlem Day Trip from Amsterdam: The Complete 2026 Guide
- At The Café — Café De Druif — A Sailors’ Bar With a Pirate’s Story
- Around The Web — Texel Island Netherlands: The Complete Visitor’s Guide, Tracing Your Family in Zeeland: A Heritage Travel Plan, Delft: Vermeer’s Quiet Canal City + more
- From Love Netherlands — Tracing Your Family in North Holland: A Heritage Travel Plan
- Dutch Food You Will Love — Bitterballen — The Small, Dangerous Joy of the Dutch Evening
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Haarlem Day Trip from Amsterdam: The Complete 2026 Guide
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A Haarlem day trip from Amsterdam ranks among the best decisions any visitor to the Netherlands can make. Just fifteen minutes by train, Haarlem delivers the Dutch Golden Age atmosphere that Amsterdam once promised before the crowds arrived. Wide market squares, ancient churches, master paintings, and a thriving café culture wait here — with barely a queue in sight. This guide covers everything you need to know to make the most of a day in one of the Netherlands’ most rewarding cities. Love the Netherlands? Join our free newsletter for hidden Dutch gems → inlovewithnetherlands.com/subscribe Getting to Haarlem from Amsterdam Trains from Amsterdam Centraal run to Haarlem every ten to fifteen minutes throughout the day. The journey takes just fifteen minutes, and a return ticket costs around €6 in 2026. Intercity Direct trains (requiring a supplement) pass through, but standard sprinter…
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Have you been there? Do you have a memory of this corner of the Netherlands? Hit reply and tell us — we’d love to hear your story.
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At The Café
Café De Druif — A Sailors’ Bar With a Pirate’s Story
Café De Druif on the Rapenburgerplein is a small brown café in Amsterdam’s old Eastern Docklands neighbourhood, founded in 1631. It once served sailors heading out from the East India Company quays, and the worn wooden bar has barely changed. Folklore says Piet Hein — the Dutch admiral who captured the Spanish silver fleet — drank here. The place is small, the regulars are friendly, and on a quiet weekday afternoon you can sit alone with a borrel of jenever and feel four centuries of Amsterdam waterfront history settle around you.
👉 Visit the café
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Around The Web
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From Love Netherlands
Your opa left a village north of Amsterdam. Your grandmother kept a photograph of a harbour town with wooden fishing boats. Somewhere in North Holland, your family’s Dutch story began. North Holland is the heart of Dutch history. It is home to Amsterdam, Haarlem, Alkmaar, and the old Zuiderzee ports of Hoorn and Enkhuizen. For those with Dutch roots, this province holds some of the richest genealogical records in the country. The Amsterdam City…
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Photo via Love Netherlands
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Dutch Food You Will Love
Bitterballen — The Small, Dangerous Joy of the Dutch Evening
A bitterbal is a small, crumb-coated sphere of slow-cooked beef ragout, deep-fried until crisp and served burning hot with a dish of sharp Dutch mustard. Walk into any brown café on a weekday evening and you’ll see them on half the tables. The rules are: wait two minutes so you don’t burn your mouth, bite off the top to let the steam escape, dip in mustard, eat in two bites, and order another round. Their name has nothing to do with being bitter — it’s from the old Dutch word bittertje, an aperitif served at pre-dinner hour. The name stuck long after jenever stopped being the drink of choice.
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