Haarlem

We took a day trip to visit Haarlem. It was a perfectly lovely little town with among other claims to fame was a beautiful organ that had been played by Handel and Mozart.

But the destination that put Haarlem on our itinerary was the Corrie Ten Boom home. She wrote 'The Hiding Place' about the experiences she and her family had while hiding Jews in their home during WWII and their subsequent punishments. It’s a very inspirational story (I liked it much more than the Diary of Anne Frank) and it seemed that everyone on our tour had been deeply touched by her message of forgiveness and pure Christianity.

Outside of Haarlem we hiked across a nature reserve and UPHILL to the beach! Only in the Netherlands where so much of the country is below sea level can you hike uphill to a beach. The pines we passed through reminded me of the tilted Torrey Pines along the California coast. It was so nice to walk along a beach again.