The bridge is closed -- boats waiting in line at the Spaarne.

Click on Read More... for some pictures. (Read More... | comments?)

It's the 3rd big fire in that area within a few months. (comments?)

A few minutes ago a huge rainstorm came above Haarlem. A big difference compared with last Friday.

At Chess I work on the highest floor so it's very noisy now because of the rain.

(comments?)

When I started smelling smoke, my first thought was to look at my monitor. I had a computer monitor on fire once, many years ago.

The smoke came from outside, there's was a huge black cloud coming from the Waarderpolder. I didn't have a lot to do, so I went to take a look. There's a building on fire on the Waarderweg, near the Vomar but at the other side of the river. The smoke smells a bit like that from the steam-trains in Opperdoes. Only there is a lot more of it, of course.

It's seems like quite a large fire, let's hope nobody gets hurt. (4 comments)

I went to the Grote Markt in my lunchbreak (it's just a regular working for us). I wanted to have a look at the weird tent -- it turned out to be from Oxfam.



We arrived there perhaps 10 minutes after the official start of Liberation Day but there weren't a lot of people. The weather is the same a last year: really bad. (comments?)

I was looking at the website of Haarlem.nl to find out where the commemoration service tonight will be, when I saw this picture of the Grote Markt:



As you can read here it's the tent for tomorrow's festivities. (comments?)

Saturday evening we went to see the Bloemencorso arriving in Haarlem. This is a big annual Flower Parade.

The Haarlems Dagblad has put some really nice pictures online.

One of the most beautiful cars was the one with the swans (from the Keukenhof). (comments? | Score: 5)

Today was the funeral of Mr. R. Knipper, one of the three volunteer firefighters who died last Sunday when the Koningkerk burned down.

I was at the Grote Markt (went to get a haircut after lunch) and there were many people gathered. A lot of busses too, many firefighter crews came from all over the country.

It was the first time ever that firefighters died in action in Haarlem. Two of my collegues also work for the volunteer firebrigade. (2 comments)

About an hour ago I went home briefly. When I was almost there I heard screaming: "Turn around! On your knees!".

Fortunately it wasn't meant for me but for the guy that had some sort of an axe and was breaking the windows of the police station. I guess he was really angry, when I walked back to Chess I saw that at least 8 windows had been broken...

While looking for a nice picture of the police station I came across this (slightly sarcastic) article about the renovation of the Nieuwe Gracht, where Chess (my employer) is located. Translated: "It's always nice if big companies like Chess are able to see how people were living in the Middle Ages and how they transported their stuff over sandroads, with holes in the road. That must have given those smart guys a lot of inspiration".

The renovation this website talks about finished about a year ago but did indeed take much longer than expected. (5 comments)

When we had dinner we saw flash-lights and smoke on the Adriaan. First we thought somebody is shooting pictures, but it turns out to be a training for the firebrigade. I suppose the flash is for the pictures that are meant for this website. (comments?)

The Hendrick de Keyser Foundation bought the building 'Huis Barnaart'.

That's very close to Chess, I walk by it everyday. (Read More... | comments?)

The window near my desk is getting full with snow.

(Read More... | 3 comments | Score: 4.8)

I wondered if I could find yesterdays waking up on the internet. After all, even Middenmeer has their firebrigade online.

And yes, there is a website of the Haarlem firebrigade too. Yesterdays event is not online yet, but they are many pictures of other fires they worked on. They coolest feature of the site, one that Middenmeer's doesn't have, is the life audio stream of their scanner. (comments? | Score: 1)

Yesterday morning it was snowing: the first time since we're living in Haarlem.

Click on 'Read More' for yesterday's view from the window. (Read More... | comments? | Score: 5)

There's a Christmas star on the Adriaan. (comments? | Score: 3)