Haarlem

Before our trip, we'd been watching a DVD lecture on Dutch art and were inspired to visit the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, which is about 30 minutes west of Amsterdam.  Really glad we did.  Haarlem was just charming, and Hals' work is just jaw dropping. Highly, highly recommended!

From our vantage points from a couple different cafes on the same square (Grote Markt):

An amusing anecdote: we were walking outside another church near this main square when we heard muffled but clearly tortured screams..Mind you, this was Sunday just after mass...turns out it was this video installation in a nearby museum.  Extremely cool!  Nothing like a little Sunday afternoon black metal!

We decided to make our way back to the train station to head back to A'dam when lo and behold, we spotted an honest to goodness turning windmill in the distance!  Had to take a look.  And of course, once there i had to do a quick sketch:

Really pretty inaccurate and bad, but i was falling asleep and not making good decisions.  That's my excuse anyways.