Fun Facts

• The Haarlem Railway Station opened 20 Sept 1839 and was built to accommodate the passengers of the first railway in the Netherlands between Haarlem and Amsterdam. The station became permanent in 1842 and was designed by Frederick Willem Conrad. The station was then redesigned in 1867 by P.J. Mouthaan, adding an extra floor to the building and enclosing the front.

• A grave in the floor of St. Bavo. Legend says only the rich can afford to be buried here. Regardless of wealth and preservation, the corpses rotted as they lay under the stone floor. This gave rise to the phrase "stinking rich."

• An angel on the underside of the Organ of Sint Bavokerk, built by Christian Müller, completed in 1738. It has 60 voices and 32 foot pedal towers. Referenced in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, "Seeing all these colonnades of bone so methodically ranged about, would you not think you were inside of the great Haarlem organ, and gazing upon its thousand pipes?" Famous musicians have played this organ, including Mendelssohn, Händel, and a 10 year old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

• The De Adriaan is the famous windmill of Haarlem. It was built in 1779 on the foundation of the Goevrouwetoren by Adriaan de Booys. The original windmill burnt down in 1932, but was rebuilt in 2002 to it's original design and is fully functional. The De Adriaan was built to product cement, paint, and tanbark.

• The Keukenhof Garden, "Kitchen Garden," is known as the Garden of Europe. It is situated on 15th century hunting grounds, covers 32 acres, and is home to more than seven million blooming bulbs.