Haarlem is the pretty one among the big Dutch towns, a city of about a hundred and fifty thousand people that keeps its old centre in good order, with a huge market square dominated by the Grote Kerk, the great church of St Bavo. The organ inside, built in the 1730s, was played by Handel and by the ten-year-old Mozart. The Frans Hals Museum holds the paintings of the great portraitist who lived and worked here in the seventeenth century, and the Teylers Museum, founded in 1778, is the oldest museum in the Netherlands, a cabinet of fossils, instruments and drawings in an elegant building. Haarlem sits on the Spaarne river, a short distance from the dunes and the North Sea.
The city has strong links to flowers. In the seventeenth century, during the tulip mania, bulbs were traded here for staggering sums, and the surrounding area, the Bollenstreek, remains the centre of bulb growing. Haarlem's name has even given its name to a district in New York, because Dutch settlers called their new town Nieuw Haarlem. The Bavo market and the old Waag, the weigh house, add to the character, and the city is a good place to walk, with almost every street offering a view of a gabled house or a courtyard.
For a rider finishing the Dutch Flower Route, Haarlem is a pleasant and easy end. The roads between the dunes at Zandvoort and the bulb fields are gentle and flat, with little drama but plenty of colour. The coastal dunes are a nature reserve, and the road through the Kennemerland area passes forests and sand hills. Traffic in the city, as always, is controlled, with cycle lanes everywhere, so ride carefully. Parking for motorbikes is generally available, though restrictions apply in the centre.
Eat in one of the many cafes on the Grote Markt, where you can try bitterballen, deep-fried meat croquettes served with mustard, or a plate of local cheese. The best season is spring, when the bulbs are in bloom, but the city is lively all year. Finish the ride at a canalside terrace with a glass of beer, as the evening light softens on the brick.