HAARLEM – Beauty comes in the unexpected. Haarlem was just a stop along many that day, but a worthwhile venture. The seaport town would never have been thought of as a stop back in the 1600s. Then, it had been at the height of its crowning glory. Wares entered the Netherlands through Haarlem.
The brick houses and walkways reminded one of NYC’s Harlem. School was letting out at midday, and from every which way parents with wooden trolleys biked by. Golden sunlight trailed beaver-carved seats bouncing behind their bicycles.
Small crowds became larger ones in front of the fish shop. It sat on the banks of the ocean. House boats floated nearby; with a quick look, it was clear most were well-lived in, with blankets and knick knacks scattered along the interior. Seafood fried merged with ocean.
Delicious, efficient service followed, with no hand-holding. Simply, customers walked assertively up to the narrow counter and shouted out their orders. The coast behind them seemed to end on a windmill on high ground. People streamed towards it, for the tourist bureau sat nearby. The breeze came in from the ocean, and passed by housing with a large courtyard, gate opened. The ladies inside advised a visit to the museum.
“If you like science, this is the place for you,” the woman said enthusiastically.
This place was the Teylors Museum, where Nobel-winner in physics Lorentz was the head of science in his time, at least according to a caption next to a large static generator. What would such a contraption, seen in the heading image, be used for, you asked?
How an electro-static generator works
A mechanical mechanism creates friction, which generates static charge. Two opposite poles sit in the, sometimes, spherical metallic conductors. When the buildup of charges equals the charging current, there will be a discharge seen in the form of a spark!
Further down into the town square, there were many celebrations going on simultaneously at the Grote Markt. Weddings, high school graduations, youth with their parents strolled down the street at late afternoon. The Belgian fries shop overflowed with teenagers laughing and gobbling dripping cones over-filled to the brim with fries. German Fanta really let the fries go down expediently.
Arrows indicated Libraries, Restaurants, Chocolate Stores this way or that; at the rate folks were walking, it seemed like they were heading towards a place in mind. The chocolate, rich and milky, with assorted M&Ms, orange slices embedded, sat inside the shop and sit in the fridge now, forever commemorating Haarlem, the memory that was more than just a stop.
postcardsfromanne.com 