The charming city of Leiden

When I received the discount ticket from NS for a boat trip I couldn’t stop thinking about the day I will revisit Leiden. The sunny days were even more to handle at work, in the country where Murphy law applies the best, when sun is available mostly in weekdays and not in weekends. I’ve been in Leiden in our first month in NL, last year, wandered around the streets, visiting the botanical garden – which is the first of her kind in the world, enjoying one beer in the first hill area we’ve seen after several weeks.

Compared with Haarlem, which is at 20 minutes away with the train, Leiden is bigger and somehow different. Squares are often to meet and the old canal (“Oude Singel”) provides enough place for multiple terraces, with different beers to try. Not to miss Burcht van Leiden, from where a panoramic imagine over the city will simply enchant your eyes. Scouring the streets, even on a rainy day, is a pleasure, especially if you are looking at the remarkable architecture of the houses. Rembrandt was born in Leiden, but the street doesn’t have anything left from the old ages, only the name of it and one statue reminds you about it.

On this Saturday we headed to Leiden and took a boat tour. Since the bridges are very low, the boat had a low ceiling so everybody had to almost crawl inside. In one hour we had part of rain and sun, rain and sun again and we discovered the market. Of course, being Saturday, I should have thought that the market will be open. So on each side of the old canal, multiple stands were presenting fruits or vegetables – a place full of people and the smell of strawberries. And since there’s nothing lovelier to do, we wandered around on the streets and stopped only for a beer or two.

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