Guus Bosman

Friday afternoon I went with my collegue's for a drink. The weather was really nice, and a large project had just delivered a new version, so we went earlier than usual. We were at the outside cafe from 16.30 o'clock, and it was a very cosy afternoon.

In the evening Sasha and I had dinner together -- it's so nice to be together! In fact, yesterday was our anniversery -- we met six years ago. We went out for dinner to celebrate. We went to Cafe Nobel, a restaurant at the Spaarne near the Waag. It was a very romantic evening and the food was great.

Yesterday I went into the city, armed with my camera, to enjoy the Monumentdagen in Haarlem. In this weekend many famous buildings are open to the public. The last weeks I've been reading quite a lot on the history of the city, so this was a perfect opportunity.

I visited the Waalse Kerk, the oldest church in Haarlem. Then I saw the oldest independent funeral insurance company in the Netherlands: "Begrafenis BOS De Vrijwillige Liefde Beurs". It was founded in 1719. The 'executive board' comes together every Friday evening and consist of only volunteers. Very interesting, they offered me an insurance policy, "in case I ever feel mortal".

Then I visited the City Hall at the Grote Markt. It was also open to public, and it was really interesting to have a look inside. Inside there were paitings of the various Counts of Holland and events that happened in the city.

I enjoyed the visit to the history museum of Haarlem at the Groot Heiligland the most. It's small, but they had a nice exhibition. Absolutely great was the machine with stereoscopic pictures, taken more than 120 years ago. You could see the Amsterdamse Poort in use as the entrance to the city, as well as the Grote Houtpoort, and the Adriaan before it burned down.

After a quick visit to the Archeological musеum (under the Vleeshal) and an exhibition of modern art in the Waag I went back home. I didn't take a lot of pictures, except for the one below. It is inspired by a replica of a painting I saw in the funeral insurance company.