It's been really cold in the Netherlands the last two weeks and many canals and rivers are frozen.

Harm sent me beautiful pictures of a ice skating trip he made through the city of Haarlem, where we used to live. My uncle skated over the Spaarne river from Haarlem to Spaarndam and took nice shots of windmill De Adriaan at the Hooimarkt.

Unlike most Dutchmen, I do not personally enjoy ice skating. My childhood memories of learning to skate are mainly about very cold hands and clumsy falling. When we lived in Opperdoes there was a small river behind our house, with a view of the farmlands surrounding the village. I vividly remember the bitter cold when trying to tie my wooden skates to my boots.

At the other hand I have very happy memories of our wooden sleigh, and my father pushing Ettie and me through the snow.

Cold winters like these are fairly rare in the Netherlands. There was the hope that the Elfstedentocht skating marathon would be held this year, but it was not to be. Ettie and Gerben sent us cute videos of Jasper's first experience on the ice at the Bonkevaart in Leeuwarden. I hope his early childhood memories about the ice will be happy.

I was tempted by these beautiful paintings and old maps of Haarlem.

Too expensive!

A frequent reader sent me an interesting fragment of a Dutch TV show, where they were investigating the myth about secret tunnels under the city of Haarlem.

See the fragment on-line (Windows streaming media), or visit their website for more options.

Friday afternoon I went with my collegue's for a drink. The weather was really nice, and a large project had just delivered a new version, so we went earlier than usual. We were at the outside cafe from 16.30 o'clock, and it was a very cosy afternoon.

In the evening Sasha and I had dinner together -- it's so nice to be together! In fact, yesterday was our anniversery -- we met six years ago. We went out for dinner to celebrate. We went to Cafe Nobel, a restaurant at the Spaarne near the Waag. It was a very romantic evening and the food was great.

Yesterday I went into the city, armed with my camera, to enjoy the Monumentdagen in Haarlem. In this weekend many famous buildings are open to the public. The last weeks I've been reading quite a lot on the history of the city, so this was a perfect opportunity.

I visited the Waalse Kerk, the oldest church in Haarlem. Then I saw the oldest independent funeral insurance company in the Netherlands: "Begrafenis BOS De Vrijwillige Liefde Beurs". It was founded in 1719. The 'executive board' comes together every Friday evening and consist of only volunteers. Very interesting, they offered me an insurance policy, "in case I ever feel mortal".

Then I visited the City Hall at the Grote Markt. It was also open to public, and it was really interesting to have a look inside. Inside there were paitings of the various Counts of Holland and events that happened in the city.

I enjoyed the visit to the history museum of Haarlem at the Groot Heiligland the most. It's small, but they had a nice exhibition. Absolutely great was the machine with stereoscopic pictures, taken more than 120 years ago. You could see the Amsterdamse Poort in use as the entrance to the city, as well as the Grote Houtpoort, and the Adriaan before it burned down.

After a quick visit to the Archeological musеum (under the Vleeshal) and an exhibition of modern art in the Waag I went back home. I didn't take a lot of pictures, except for the one below. It is inspired by a replica of a painting I saw in the funeral insurance company.

Friday evening I picked Sasha up from the airport, and we had a great weekend. Saturday my parents came and we had coffee together.

Afterwards Sasha and I went into the city. There were the "Haarlem Vaardagen" in the city. Many boats were in the city, take came from all over Holland. The theme of this year's event was the liberation of Haarlem from the Spanish occupation.

There was a lot of music, a book market, plays, games etc. The weather was awesome. We went both Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Sunday afternoon we also visited an exhibition about the Vleeshal, a building in Haarlem, and we had a beer on the Grote Markt.


See some pictures.

I found a beautiful historic map of Haarlem online.

The map is from 1575 and was created by Braun and Hogenberg, for the atlas Civitates Orbis Terrarum.

This was the way the city looked like when it was under siege by the Spaniards.

In the lower left corner of the map you can see the Catharijnebrug, the bridge that is close to our house now (opposite the policestation). On the map that is the end of the city, before the city gates. The Hooimarkt became part of the city much later.

Last weekend and tonight I have been reading and writing about Haarlem. I'm working on an article about Haarlem and De Adriaan.

When I came back from the library to pick up a book about the city, I walked past the Prinsenhof, and over the Grote Markt. It's nice to see so much history around you.

A cute joke for Dutch readers: what's the opposite of Bulgarije?

Answer: Koe blijf staan!

The Bevrijdingspop festival started at 12:00 o'clock this afternoon. In the Kruisstraat, the street next to my work, there is a constant stream of people coming from Centraal Station to the park where the festival is.

I was going with Hugo, a colleague, for a cup of coffee and took a picture.

Today is May 5th, which marks the liberation of the Netherlands at the end of World War II. The celebrations today follow the national remembrance day (May 4th) when the people are commemorated who have fallen in the war and other wars. Yesterday I went to the ceremony at the Dreef in Haarlem.

I always enjoy today, it's a great idea to be able to celebrate freedom. The national flag is out on official buildings, I took some pictures on my way to work.

This is so much fun! I've made a panorama picture of the Hooimarkt.

Jaap borrowed me his tripod, and yesterday afternoon I took pictures of the street in front of our house. Tonight I 'stitched' them together using a special program. There are 12 pictures glued together, to create a complete 360 degree view.

The result is two-fold: first a large picture of the Hooimarkt in Haarlem, but the most pretty thing is a so-called Quicktime panorama file. It's huge, almost 10Mb, but very nice to see. For those of you with a quick connection (or a lot of patience): a Quicktime Panorama of the Hooimarkt!