It's Saturday morning in the Dutch city of Haarlem, Netherlands and the open market is in full bloom. It's one of the larger and more lively market squares in all of Holland. Market day in a European city is generally a lot of fun. You get a chance to mingle around with the locals then have a look at the produce, and the cheese and the fruits and different clothing items for sale, participating like a resident – and maybe you'll find something good to eat.
It's no surprise this big event is at the central market square right in the middle of town next to the big church.
When traveling it's not always easy to strike up conversations with the locals but on market day everybody is ready to talk, so by all means have some chats with the vendors.
If you don't find anything to eat at the market there are a number of cafés all around the market. There's a beautiful corner bar here – people kicking back watching the parade of people going by, having a drink or having a meal. It's a perfect spot for a break before plunging back into the market.
The buildings all around the market square are beautiful and historic. Most of them date back to the 1600s. You've got the old meat market, you've got the weighing house, the City Hall, and the big church, the Grote Kerk, there is an archaeology museum and some former residences of the nobles.
Well you can see how much fun this market is but you've got to be here on a Saturday to catch all of this action. So if you can possibly arrange your schedule, if you're staying in Amsterdam and you're around on a weekend, by all means come on over to Haarlem and have a walk around the market and then see the rest of town.
We have more movies about Haarlem so be sure to have a look at our YouTube channel and subscribe so you can be notified about all of our recent uploads. We've also got a series of films about the Netherlands covering many of the highlights of this beautiful country, stay tuned.
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