I returned to Haarlem in the Netherlands to visit some family members that didn’t get to see me the first time I visited. It’s also the first time in a while since I’ve ridden a bike somewhere that has the infrastructure for it. I rode a friend’s bike in Castres and out to le Sidobre, but that’s not the same. They don’t really have bike lanes, and French drivers are a little crazy, so it’s far less enjoyable than biking in the Netherlands. Between the warm hospitality of family and the always joyful opportunity to explore an area on bicycle, I found my two nights in Haarlem to be fairly relaxing. This turned out to be a good thing, since the following trip to Paris turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. I booked and paid a supplemental fee for a highspeed train to try and cut the transit time from 8.5 hours to only 5 hours. Just my luck, the train ran into issues, and after we were nearly halfway to Paris, they announced that we needed to return to Brussels. We then stood on the platform waiting for the replacement train before restarting that leg of the journey all over again. In the end it ended up taking just as long as the conventional regional trains, and involved just as many transfers. Oh well, at least I made it to Paris eventually.
Returning to Haarlem
15 Aug
This entry was published on August 15, 2013 at 4:33 pm. It’s filed under Europe, Travel and tagged adventure, Backpacker, Backpacking, Bicycle, Family, Haarlem, Netherlands, Photos, Trains.
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Me and my pack. 