September 16.Our last day in The Netherlands. Haarlem is a somewhat less touristed city than Amsterdam, which made it a good place for the end of the trip. Things happen at a less frenetic pace here. Had fun window shopping. We found that Barbie is very hot here!
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Got a lot of souvenirs, and visited the Corrie Ten Boom Huis, which was not your normal museum. Did you see the movie The Hiding Place? This is the real hiding place. There was no ticket to buy; we just waited at the front door of the Ten Boom Watch Shop, and the tour guide came to the door and invited us in. A group of five of us went in, through the shop, and then upstairs to the Ten Boom parlor, where we all introduced ourselves. It was all so personal, very different from so many push through tours. We heard a few stories of the people who went through the Hiding Place, escaping from the Nazis in World War II, and we saw the tiny space where Jews and other targets of the Nazi occupiers of The Netherlands would go if the buzzer went off. It all made me very grateful to live in a country which had not known war within its borders for so many years. I think most Americans don't have any idea how lucky we really are.
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Memorial plaque for the Ten Boom family; Yours Truly in The Hiding Place
Later we went to the Teylers Museum, an old museum devoted mostly to the natural sciences,
some early electrical apparati, such as Leiden jars(named after a nearby city). There is also
a small, but surprisingly good selection of Dutch paintings from the 17th century. Our favorite
is Schotel's Stormy Sea.
After a light supper, we took in an organ concert in the St. Bavokerk. The church, and the organ itself were impressive, and the selections well played.
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And then, a sad task. Time to pack for the trip home.
I don't wanna go!
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