Netherlands - Days 2-3, Leiden and Nordwijk

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The next morning, I was planning to meet my friends. I first had breakfast of bread and strawberries before packing up to go. Getting to Leiden from my hotel in Rotterdam was beyond easy - the Rotterdam Blaak train station was just steps from the hotel and went directly to the Leiden Centraal station in about 40 minutes. My friend and their oldest daughter picked me up and drove me home. I had worked with the couple in Qatar, but in the last three years, they had had two kids and bought a home. What have I done again...?

So, the grandparents came to pick up the kids to watch for the day while my friends and I rode bikes into town. On the way, it was cold, rainy, and a bit windy, but the day actually turned out beautifully. When we arrived in the city center, we took our bikes into an indoor bike parking station. Awesome. We went to lunch, where I got krokettas (basically, croquettes) and a staple Dutch food. 😊 After lunch, we went out and I got a stroopwafel for the first time - these are what everyone seems to love here. They are flat, crispy pancakes filled with caramel. Ish. I bought a bunch for my friend per her specific request, but I accidentally left them in the bike saddle bags. Since it was also a Saturday, that meant the market was in full swing and it was fun to see all the fish, cheeses, household supplies, etc available.

We walked up to the nearby Leiden fort, Burcht van Leiden, which goes back to the 11th century, had historical significance in the 80 years war and has excellent views of the city. You can see the Hoogslande Kerk (church) from the fort which we walked near after. We walked around much of the city afterwards, and it was just amazing to me to see such beautiful streets and I had to keep reminding myself I was not in a stage set, like at Disney or something. It just seemed so perfect and Dutch.

We then went to Pieterskerk, one of the other large churches in town. This time, we went inside to look around. It was funny, because this happened to be the church with the Mayflower Compact, and apparently this is the town that many of the English pilgrims had fled to before heading to America (I guess they found the Dutch had loose morals). The church itself was lovely, with so many things to see.

Next we went on a boat tour around the city. It was awesome. There were many low bridges, which we barely cleared and it was a good overall tour of the town's history. This is a University City, focusing on the technical and science, so there were many buildings we could see along the tour. The ducks that were nesting in the water looked so clean and perfect. The tour basically went through almost the whole old town, so it was very nice. I could see the parks, old buildings, and all the bikes that went by. One of the most interesting things that I heard on the tour was that if you notice all the town houses have different windows above the entrances; this is not for aesthetics, but was used to identify a person's home (until Napoleon came and they instituted numbered addresses).

We went to collect our bikes (after having run into a sister-in-law and a good friend) and headed to dinner at a sushi restaurant. It was all you can eat sushi. We were all still a little full from our late lunch, and this would be an early dinner, but it was still delicious. Lots of choices and the sushi was good too. Then we split up with L going to join his friends for drinks, and M and I heading home to meet up with the little baby. Her mother had brought the baby home and picked up the bike they had leant me - her parents were so nice! We didn't last much longer and went to bed.

The next day, we enjoyed a typical Dutch breakfast of bread and hard boiled eggs. Then we head northwest to the dunes at Nordwijk, a beach town nearby. It was a bit chilly, bu the sun was out so we had a nice walk through the dunes with great views of the farmland below. This is an area near where M's grandparents have their tulip farm (I really need to come here in the spring). It was the baby's first trip to the dunes, so we took some photos.

Then we walked towards the beach and had hot chocolate at the little cafe while spending our last few moments together. I got to hold the little one - he is a big baby and so cute! Then L drove me to the train station and I headed off to do my training in Amsterdam. Until next time I guess!

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Photos

Leiden town hall
Where they got married, as is apparently typical. Most weddings are not in church apparently

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

What a beautiful town
We hope to visit this when we get back to this part of the world.