Jul 19, 2026
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Haarlem’s Golden Age Secrets
Twenty minutes from Amsterdam lies a city of Gothic spires and masterpieces most travellers completely overlook.
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Love Netherlands
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Dear Netherlands,
There’s a version of the Netherlands that tourists rarely find. It’s in Jordaan on a Saturday morning, where the Noordermarkt smells of fresh bread and old cheese. It’s in Utrecht, where canal-level wharfs have become the most beautiful cafés in Europe. It’s in Delft, where Vermeer’s light still falls across the same brick walls.
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Marek Ślusarczyk (Tupungato) Photo gallery via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
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In today’s email:
- Haarlem: The Golden Age City That Glitters on Amsterdam’s Doorstep
- At The Café — Café ‘T Mandje — The First Lesbian Bar in Amsterdam
- 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 — Kibbeling — The Dutch Fried Cod From the Fish Stall
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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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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 ‘T Mandje — The First Lesbian Bar in Amsterdam
Café ‘T Mandje on the Zeedijk opened in 1927, run by Bet van Beeren — one of the first openly lesbian bar owners in the world. The bar’s interior is preserved exactly as Bet left it: dozens of cut-off ties pinned to the ceiling (her custom for any man who got too rowdy), framed photos of regulars from the 1930s onwards, and the same long wooden bar her customers leaned on for half a century. It’s still a working café and an active part of LGBTQ history. Stop in for a beer, take in the ceiling, and read the small museum corner near the door.
👉 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
Kibbeling — The Dutch Fried Cod From the Fish Stall
Kibbeling is bite-sized chunks of cod, dipped in spiced beer batter and deep-fried until the outside crackles and the fish inside flakes apart. Every fish stall in every Dutch town square sells it, served in a paper cone with a small pot of garlic-and-mustard whitlofsaus. There’s nothing quite like the first bite on a cold afternoon, salt and crisp and steam all in one go. Dutch fried fish is taken seriously here — every region has its own batter recipe, and the truly local stalls cook to order rather than pre-frying.
👉 Read the full story
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