A full day in Haarlem began with our breakfast at our hotel, the Hotel Amadeus. We had known for the past few days that the weather was going to be rainy today, but we've dealt with our share of rain. So, after breakfast, we loaded up the umbrellas and made our way to our first stop, Grote Keurk. This huge, old, church sits right on the square. The unique features inside include some impressive stained glass windows, some model ships, a cannonball embedded in a wall, a floor made of headstones, and a pipe organ that rises to over 30 feet tall. This beast has eight octaves, and was once played by people such as Mozart, Handel, and (for some reason) Albert Schweitser. After the church tour, we wandered the streets of Haarlem some more, making our way south to the Frans Hals museum. The museum is nice, dominated by the work of Frans Hals, natch. It's a lot of portraiture, but with the guidebook at my side to show me what to look for, I found it pretty enjoyable. There's also a very impressive dollhouse exhibit. Following the museum tour, we made our way to a streetside cafe to have some lunch, settling on a nice sandwich place. Great food, reasonably priced, friendly service. Tisha's sandwich was an awesome concoction featuring ciabatta bread, goat cheese, honey, and walnuts. It really worked well! We eventually returned to the hotel to figure out our evening, then went out again walking all over town, enjoying frites, sampling beer, walking through the red light district (yes, Haarlem has one, too), and eventually heading to dinner at an Indonesian restaurant. That was also a feast fit for a king. I'd had high hopes I might lose some weight this trip with all the walking, but man, the food... Anyway, following dinner, we made our way back to our hotel to find a street party/rave going on that's supposedly going to last until midnight. Remember, our hotel room looks right out onto the square. No early sleep for us tonight. :) Tomorrow, we explore Haarlem a little more in the morning, then make our way south to Hoek van Holland to catch an overnight ferry to Britain. Yay! Pics here.