On Vakantie

There’s a real buzz in Haarlem at the moment. It’s all to do with the holiday season.  The campsites nestled in the sand dunes between here and the coast are  full to bursting point. And when the happy Dutch and German campers want a break from BBQ’ing  the evening meal, they head into town.

Haarlem also seems a mecca for visiting Spanish and Italians. I’ve never really thought about it before, always preferring to head south to warmer climes for my summer holidays, but I suppose if you live somewhere warm all year round, you might well head up north to do a bit of sight-seeing. I’m not entirely sure that a guided tour of Haarlem’s Red Light district would be top of my holidaying agenda, but as we sat outside our favourite Irish bar the other evening, a steady stream of tourists appeared to be enjoying a visit to the nearby brothel.

Other visitors include those who arrive by bicycle barge. This is an excellent way to travel through the Netherlands. You stop off at a new town every day and explore on two wheels, then return to your barge for a meal and bed every night. 

The Dutch take their annual vakantie very seriously. Despite the influx of tourists bringing business into town, there are still bars, cafes and shops which remain gesloten whilst their owners take their own break.  The pool where I take my weekly swim has also closed for six weeks – this is apparently so that staff can rotate through Haarlem’s two remaining pools to allow everyone to take their annual leave. It sounds like a good idea for the staff, but closing your pool, when the kids are off school??  To me that doesn’t make an awful lot of sense, although I have to admit our street feels like a ghost town at the moment with most of our neighbours away. Perhaps it does work. The locals go away, the tourists flock in.

This weekend also saw the arrival of the Haarlem Culinaire food festival. A dozen or so local restaurants set up pitch in the main square offering tempting bite size portions to sample. As with all things Dutch there was plenty of loud music and copious amounts of alcohol on offer to accompany the event. Any excuse.

And for once it has been ideal weather for partying. We’ve had a ‘first’ since we arrived in the Netherlands eleven months’ ago.  An entire week rain-free.

And that wasn’t the only first. We actually made into the prize money at the pub quiz, reaching the dizzy heights of second place. Whether this was helped by the fact that some of the regulars are away on vakantie, I don’t know, and I don’t care. As we’re never going to beat the professional team who win every week, second place is good enough for me!