Leiden, Holland June 2010

The train ride to Leiden was only a few minutes, just enough to get comfortable and then it was time to jump up, grab our bags, and stumble throught the station to find a taxi. The ride to our hotel was even shorter; we were literally within walking distance of our hotel, but then we didn't know that until we got there! We apologized to the driver, but he was very gracious and thought nothing of it.



I must say that our little hotel room was one of the weirdest we had ever stayed in. We couldn't get the door all the way open; the king-size bed blocked it. The room was very small, with a bathroom included, though the shower was good. It had a narrow passageway to the window - we had to stack our suitcases there and then scoot sideways through it to get to the small desk where we set up our computer. Fortunately it had a window, so I could cock my head up to see the sky. We asked if there was a pot to boil water for instant coffee; the hotel said oh no, only the deluxe rooms get coffee pots. I rolled my eyes at that one, but the internet connection was rather cheap per day, so we at least had internet. We went to the store and bought a little travel coffee pot, so there! It is nice to have a hot drink in the morning; it gets you going.

We started exploring by visiting the tourist office to get brochures, maps, walking tours, etc. The walking tours are great, because it takes you to all different parts of the city that you may not have even noticed.

Leiden is a pretty little town, with a long history. It had a technical college from the middle ages, and even Einstein came here to teach. It capitalized on its river, the Rhine, by letting it meander through the middle of town. And for some reason it has many good little restaurants. We really enjoyed our stay here.

The World Cup is starting here, and we are taken up in the excitement. USA was to play England on Saturday night, so naturally we went to the English Pub on the corner to join the crowd. We thought we would be in the minority, but we found out that there were many American fans there - they were going to school or were just in Holland for the summer. When England scored its goal, there were shouts of joy, but when USA got the goal - the English goalkeeper stopped the ball but it bounced out of his hands and rolled into the net! - the whole pub was excited and chanting USA,USA. I really got into the whole game - there is something about being part of the crowd during a game, isn't there? There was a friendly guy standing next to me - we were all squashed in together, of course - and I asked him about the rules whenever anything happened. The next thing I knew another guy next to me said "how can you be so passionate about something and you don't even know the rules??" I wanted to say, what is complicated about this game - you just kick the ball into the net? But I just shrugged my shoulders and kept on cheering. His girlfriend was American and she sympathized with me and gave me some hints about the rules. It was a fun evening, and I was thrilled that team America was popular.

It is amazing that all over Holland there is so much construction going on. They are renovating old structures, they are building more roads or subways, they are laying new pipe for sewers, etc. This country seems to be thriving. I was glad to see that, amid all of the horror stories of European economy collapsing. I don't see Holland having that kind of problem, at least not in their public works.

We enjoyed our time in Leiden; the neigborhoods are very accessible and the canals are well kept and pretty. We were having a good time.

We happened to notice that one of the busses that passed by our hotel actually went to the Hague central station. That was our next destination, so we decided to just drag our luggage down the street a few blocks to the bust stop instead of getting to the Leiden train station. It made a lot of sense and we could enjoy the countryside on the bus. Our destination day dawned; we had a quick breakfast and then we were on our way to the Hague. Good bye Leiden, hello the Hague!



Leiden is a university town; it actually had the first university in all of Holland in the middle ages. There are lots of students there, which makes for lots of bars and cafes.



We were back on the street in a few minutes to discover our surroundings. Downtown the old Rhine River meets the new Rhine river, so there are various waterways and canals there, which makes that part of town very lovely. We immediately found the shopping area; most of British towns has this same kind of setup. It is a very long street for pedestrians only, except in the mornings when trucks made their deliveries. There are many shops and places to eat. We walked the several blocks to see what Leiden had to offer: shoe shops, phone shops, electronic shops, bakery shops, cheese shops, eye-glass shops, and lots of shops selling casual clothes. Since it was still very chilly in Holland, I marveled that they could sell the shorts and tiny tops at all; when would they be able to wear such summer clothing?



We hoped that we didn't have to walk down this area again; we thought we didn't need any of the things they were selling. However, Jack later realized that he had left his battery charger somewhere, so we had to find a photo shop.



He was ready to photograph Leiden; it seemed to be much more photogenic that Haarlem; it had prettier canals, real windmills, and parks that were beautiful. We were on our way around the town to learn about its history and to take photographs of its interesting profile.