Day 5

Today is Haarlem......

This was a real treat today.  We slept in again until 9:00 and packed and headed out to catch our trolley to the train station....no trouble at all.  The train was pulling out as we arrived so we did not wait more than 20 seconds!!!!  The trip to Haarlem took 20 minutes, on a super quiet super smooth train (why cannot the US get their act together with trains).  We walked to our hotel which was in the middle of town....maybe 10 minute walk.  Oh yea.....it was a gorgeouos old building and our room was fabulous.  I forgot to mention that our room in Amsterdam was about as big as a stamp.....we had to keep moving our bags to get around teh room.  The bathroom was almost as big as our shower at home!!!!  That will give you an idea.  For those who have sailed in cruises.....you know the bottom rooms (the super cheap ones), well, this was smaller!!!!!

Anyway, we were happy campers and then we found out that we arrived on the weekend of the city"s Flower Festival.....Oh my god.....it is incredible.  first there are thousands of people crowding the streets.  And many floats and yes they are covered COMPLETELY with flowers.  The theme was obvious.....Broadway hit shows.  There were about 20 floats in all, and like I said every one was covered front to back with flowers......like the Rose Bowl Parade.  So our plans for touring the city went out the window.  We just enjoyed the day...........we brought our lunch as usual and siting there people watching with a beer and seeing bands, shows, floats, and people and people and people.  Wait until you see the pictures.  We took a bunch of videos too to give more of a feeling of the place.  Around 4:00 we decided to try to see the windmill at the edge of the city.  We found it closed |(Sunday) but we got some great pictures of the mill and its surroundings.  The day was about 65 and absolutely gorgeous.......lots and lots of sun.  We are not back at the hotel to rest abit and ready to go out for dinner.  And of course there are dozens and dozens of restaurants withing 5 minutes of our hotel.........\I want to try \Indian but D will proably nix that. 

All I can say is that Haarlem is a gorgeous small city....the people are sooooo nice and everyone and I mean everyone, speaks English.  And most of the signs are in English. 

And after seeing all the flowers and the floats......WE CANNOT WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW AND THE CAR TOUR OF THE FLOWER GROWING AREA!!!!!

When I get home I will post some videos and pics on facebook and the blog........We have a ton but they are soo neat.  That is what I want to do now.....rest and look at some of them.

Hopefully I will see you tomorrow in Lisse....our next stop.