Jul 20, 2026
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Haarlem’s Golden Secrets Revealed
Why Amsterdam’s overlooked neighbour deserves your afternoon and its Baroque organ deserves your awe.
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Love Netherlands
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Dear Netherlands,
If you walk through Haarlem early on a weekday morning, you can still feel the rhythm of a 17th-century town that never quite left. Coffee at a canal-side café, a short cycle to the old centre, a pause at a bookshop that’s been in the same family for three generations. The Dutch don’t advertise this. They just live it.
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Photo via Love Netherlands
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In today’s email:
- Haarlem: The Golden Age City That Glitters on Amsterdam’s Doorstep
- At The Café — Café De Sluyswacht — The Leaning House Bar by the Lock
- Around The Web — Breda, Netherlands: The Complete Visitor’s Guide (2026), Tracing Your Family in Gelderland: A Heritage Travel Plan, Tracing Your Family in North Holland: A Heritage Travel Plan + more
- From Love Netherlands — Tracing Your Family in North Brabant: A Heritage Travel Plan
- Dutch Food You Will Love — Erwtensoep — The Dutch Winter Soup That Made the Country
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Haarlem: The Golden Age City That Glitters on Amsterdam’s Doorstep
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Haarlem: The Golden Age City That Glitters on Amsterdam’s Doorstep Twenty minutes west of Amsterdam, a city of Gothic spires, hidden courtyards and Europe’s most celebrated Baroque organ awaits — and most visitors walk straight past it on their way to the coast. An introduction to Haarlem There is a particular pleasure in discovering that the city people call a day trip from Amsterdam is actually rich enough, and layered enough, to keep you busy for days. Haarlem — capital of North Holland province, home to some 160,000 people and rather proud of its own importance — has been sitting quietly west of its more famous neighbour for centuries, conducting civic life with rather more elegance and considerably less fuss. Its canal-threaded streets of rose-brick gabled houses, its magnificent central square and the soaring silhouette of Sint-Bavokerk against a Dutch sky add up to one of the…
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At The Café
Café De Sluyswacht — The Leaning House Bar by the Lock
De Sluyswacht is a tiny lock-keeper’s house from 1695 that visibly tilts to one side, sitting at the edge of the Oudeschans canal. Inside the floors slope, the beams creak, and there’s a small terrace right at the water with one of the most photographed views in Amsterdam — straight down the canal towards the Montelbaanstoren. It’s been a café since the 1990s, but the building itself is one of the oldest wooden houses in the city. Order a Belgian beer, get one of the four outdoor tables, and watch boats negotiate the lock below.
👉 Visit the café
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Around The Web
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From Love Netherlands
Your grandfather talked about the village back home. He said the family name came from somewhere in the south — a place called Brabant. He described clay soil, church bells, and long rows of farmland stretching to a flat horizon. North Brabant is the Catholic heart of the Netherlands. It sits in the south of the country, bordering Belgium. For centuries, it was different from the Protestant north. The people were farmers, weavers, and craftsmen.…
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Photo via Love Netherlands
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Dutch Food You Will Love
Erwtensoep — The Dutch Winter Soup That Made the Country
Erwtensoep is a thick, green, nearly-a-stew soup made from split peas, smoked sausage, pork, celery, leek, and patience. The Dutch have a test for whether it’s ready — if your spoon can stand up in the pot, it’s done. It was the food of the canal skaters in winter, the men repairing dikes, the families waiting out a long January. It’s still served in every good café on cold days, with thick rye bread and butter. Order it once on a rainy afternoon and you’ll understand why the Dutch love their winters more than most countries love their summers.
👉 Read the full story
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