May 14, 2026

Haarlem Travel Guide

Haarlem’s cobbled squares and 17th-century charm offer Amsterdam’s soul without the crowds—just 15 minutes by train away.

Love Netherlands

Dear Netherlands,

The Dutch have a word — gezellig — that doesn’t translate. It’s the feeling of a candle on a wet Tuesday. It’s a bar full of people who’ve known each other since school. It’s the brown café where the owner remembers your order and the rain outside makes the windows glow. You can’t chase it. You can only notice when it finds you.

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Photo: Koor in de Grote of Sint Bavo-kerk te Haarlem ter gelegenhei via Wikimedia Commons…

In today’s email:

• Haarlem Travel Guide
• At The Café — Café Olivier — The Church That Became Utrecht’s Favourite Bar
• Around The Web — Groningen Travel Guide, Maastricht Travel Guide, Utrecht Travel Guide + more
• From Love Netherlands — Delft — A Day in the Town That Made Vermeer
• Dutch Food You Will Love — Stroopwafel — The Dutch Biscuit That Became a Ritual

Haarlem Travel Guide

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The light hits the façades of Grote Markt in that particular Dutch way: soft, almost silver, bouncing off the wetness of rain-darkened brick. It’s a Saturday morning in autumn, and the square isn’t empty—there are market stalls, cyclists, people carrying flowers and bread—but it doesn’t overwhelm. You can stand still here. You can look up at the ornate gable stones and watch the pigeons and actually think. This is Haarlem in essence: a place where the Netherlands feels like itself, without needing to perform for visitors. Just fifteen minutes by train from Amsterdam , the capital of North Holland province moves to a gentler rhythm. The canals are there, yes. The bicycles, the brown cafés, the sense that you’ve stepped backward in time—all present. But the energy is neighbourly rather than frantic, and that difference matters enormously. The Heart: Grote Markt and Sint-Bavokerk Any visit…

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At The Café

Café Olivier — The Church That Became Utrecht’s Favourite Bar

Café Olivier in Utrecht is a working Belgian bar inside a deconsecrated 19th-century church. The pulpit is still there. The stained glass is still there. The pews have been replaced with long wooden tables where students, workers, and retired professors all somehow end up sharing a Trappist beer. It’s the kind of place that makes you understand why the Dutch are so comfortable with the quiet strangeness of their country — nothing here is trying to impress you, but everything is worth looking at twice.

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Around The Web

From Love Netherlands

Delft — A Day in the Town That Made Vermeer

The bullet holes are still there. Two of them, embedded in the wooden doorframe of the Prinsenhof Museum , where Balthasar Gérard’s musket fire killed William of Orange on 10 July 1584. They sit at chest height, dark punctures in pale oak, as real and immediate as anything in this small town between The Hague and Rotterdam . Stand close enough and you can feel the weight of a moment that changed everything—not just for the Dutch Revolt, but for…

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Photo: Interieur Nieuwe Kerk Delft Nederland 08 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Dutch Food You Will Love

Stroopwafel — The Dutch Biscuit That Became a Ritual

A stroopwafel is two thin waffle layers, bound together with warm caramel syrup, served on top of your coffee cup so the rising steam softens the middle. It was born in 19th-century Gouda, where a local baker used up the day’s leftover dough and the last of the syrup barrel. The result is the small daily joy of every Dutch café — placed on your saucer without asking, warm against your fingers, gone in three bites. A real stroopwafel should be slightly chewy in the middle, not hard like the ones in supermarket bags. The best ones are still sold fresh at market stalls in Gouda on Wednesdays.

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