Here are some of our favorite photos from the trip (each photo is a thumbnail linked to a higher quality picture.):
33) Morssingel Canal, Leiden, Netherlands, February 20 - It was time to see more of Holland than just Amsterdam so this morning, after breakfast and checking out of the hotel, we headed to the central train station and hitched a ride south. Halfway between Amsterdam and Rotterdam lies the small college town of Leiden. This is where cousin Heather is teaching so we hopped off there so she could teach some classes and so we could do some sightseeing. We checked into our hotel, dropped off our bags, grabbed our guide book and headed our for a two hour walking tour. Our first stop was the main canal that encircles Leiden, the Morssingle Canal.
34) Galgewater Canal, Leiden, Netherlands, February 20 - Leiden is criss-crossed with canals so the walk had us winding this way and that to cross bridges but it also guided us into small plazas and even into courtyards and back gardens of housing units to see the architecture and history of the old town.
35) Rembrandt Plein, Leiden, Netherlands, February 20 - We went to the street where Rembrandt was born and later we walked by his childhood school. We went to the church where the Pilgrims gathered after leaving England and from where they planned their trip to a new home across the western ocean. We went to the oldest university in the Netherlands and also to the oldest house in Leiden.
36) Webster University, Leiden, Netherlands, February 20 - We split up the walking tour by meeting Heather for a late lunch at a cafe by her university classroom and then popped in to see her room as she prepared for her evening class.
37) Kroonbrug (Grain Bridge), City Hall, Leiden, Netherlands, February 20 - We visited the Kroonbrug (The Grain Bridge) which goes over the Nieuwe Rign (New Rhine) River just outside city hall.
38) Nieuwe Rijn (New Rhine River), Leiden, Netherlands, February 20 - We even paused on the Kroonbrug for a rare selfie with *both* of us in it!
39) Kerkbrug, Leiden, Netherlands, February 20 - We climbed steps up a man-made hill to a fort built on top to protect the citizens from attacks against the city. And saw a big drawbridge carefully constructed and counter balanced so that a single person can raise it to allow ships to pass through with just a tug on a dangling chain.
40) Bike Garage, Leiden Central Train Station, Leiden, Netherlands, February 21 - We peeked into a cavernous underground parking garage ...for bicycles! Not bad for an initial stroll through town, huh? We then headed back to where we'd paused the tour and finished it. On our way back to the hotel we stopped into a nearby grocery store to grab snacks for dinner later in our room. We spent the evening researching what to do in this area, enjoying our snacks and catching up on Internet/email. Then nodded off with plans to do something new tomorrow!
41) Royal Delft Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles, Delft, Netherlands, February 21 - Thanks to an efficient and convenient public transit system, being in Leiden doesn't mean staying in Leiden. This morning we hopped a train to the small town of Delft - hometown of Johannes Vermeer and the birthplace of the world famous blue-and-white Delft porcelain. We had contemplated going to Rotterdam or Den Haag today but after pouring through our travel books we decided Delft was the right scale for a short day trip. The train was so easy it once again had us realizing what we are missing in the US. Trains, trams, buses and bicycles are just seamlessly integrated into life here (as are solar panels, solar water heaters, electric car and bicycle charging stations, bicycle parking and more). We walked to the train station, bought our tickets from a machine (with like two button pushes and a "tap" of a contactless credit card), walked down a flight of stairs and within 10 minutes boarded a commuter train. 20 minutes later we stepped off in Delft central station, grabbed a taxi and 5 minutes after that we were at the front door of the Royal Delft porcelain factory. Blue-and-white porcelain was first brought to Europe from China but a Chinese civil war in the early 17th century opened the door for Dutch potters to develop their own version and thus Delft style porcelain was born. Royal Delft was started in 1653 and is the oldest surviving pottery company in Holland.
42) Royal Delft Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles, Delft, Netherlands, February 21 - We took the tour which included two short films, a few rooms with historical examples of pieces throughout the 350 years of production, an exhibition space that shows off work done in collaboration with traditional artists and finally a walk through the factory showing the production process including the hand painting of pieces. Very interesting and a connection with Delft's unique culture.
43) Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), Delft, Netherlands, February 21 - From there we hopped an Uber to the main Markt square which is tourist central. Very cute, even in the grey of winter. We took the tour of the new church (Nieuwe Kerk) which is a 700 year old church and is also the burial location for most of the Dutch royals going back many generations.
44) Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), Delft, Netherlands, February 21 - Jonna and I also added the tower access to our ticket which involved a mammoth 380 steps up a narrow spiral staircase but that provided a spectacular 360 degree view out over Delft. Beautiful but we definitely had to work for it.
45) Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), Delft, Netherlands, February 21 - These wooden stairs climbed something like 350 feet to the top of the church and they were *barely* shoulder width wide. It was dizzying and probably claustrophobic for those so affected. What's more, traffic is two-way so encountering people going the other way made for tricky situations that involved scrunching into the tiny windows placed throughout the tower!
46) Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), Delft, Netherlands, February 21 - From outside you get some idea of how high those spiral staircases climb but also how impressive the view was from the top.
47) Vermeer Centrum, Delft, Netherlands, February 21 - All that effort prep'ed us for lunch and just around the corner we found Brownies-n-Downies, a non-profit cafe that hires adults who are mentally divergent (Down Syndrome, Aspergers, etc.) We had very good food and got to chat with a charming young man who was our waiter. Just down the street was the Johannes Vermeer Centre, a museum devoted to the life story of the painter. For a museum that doesn't have any actual original artwork by the subject and doesn't have some basic information (definite birthdate or birthplace) nor does it have any processions of the subject it did a great job of being interesting. It broke down his painting style, the types of paints, how he used lighting, the symbolism in this paintings and the cultural items shown within his works.
48) Vermeer Centrum, Delft, Netherlands, February 21 - The final room had a series of modern versions of some of Vermeer's most famous paintings including these rifts on his classic "Girl with a Pearl Earring". I think we have max'ed out on what we can learn about Vermeer. When we came out of the museum it was time to return to Leiden so we reversed our route taking the train back "home". As soon as we got back Jonna and I ran to the hotel to grab our laundry while Heather took the bus straight back to her place. We made the walk through darkened Leiden and threw our clothes in the washing machine at Heather's place. We swapped the clothes into what turned out to be the worlds most ineffective dryers and went out for dinner at a neighborhood Italian place. We returned to find dripping clothes so gave the so called dryer another shot. After the second hour we collected our luke warm, soaked clothes and returned to our hotel. Our room went on to look like the proverbial Chinese laundry with socks hanging on the light sconces, pants draped over the TV, shirts on hangers in the bathroom door frame and underwear spread out on the desk. I am surprised I didn't dream of being in a steamy Indonesian jungle with how humid the room was that night...
49) Lakenhal Museum, Leiden, Netherlands, February 22 - Imagine spending six hours buzzing around history in a time machine. That was kind of our experience today. The day started slowly enough. Rather then pay for the expensive breakfast buffet at the hotel, Jonna made a trip down the block to grab fruit from the neighborhood grocery and then hit up a couple of coffee shops to get us chai and coffee. We ate in the room while putting away our laundry before venturing out to learn more about Leiden. Our first stop was the Lakenhal Museum - a civic museum dedicated to telling some of the history of the city. Heather bicycled over and met is there to check out the museum. The building used to be the cloth guild house so a big focus of the museum was telling the story of the cloth industry.
50) Lakenhal Museum, Leiden, Netherlands, February 22 - However, the ground floor was an art gallery with works by local artists including a couple of early Rembrandts. The entire interior - all three floors - was beautifully done.
51) Lakenhal Museum, Leiden, Netherlands, February 22 - The original guild hall was lavishly decorated and some of the original art and craftsmanship had been kept. Huge wooden fireplace mantles, massive paintings of guild officials, rich ceiling murals, dark wood and tile floors and heavy wooden furniture. The walls had been painted with luscious dark colors like burgundy, chocolate and grey which contrasted nicely with the gold frames on the artwork. Very elegant! The second floor was devoted to the cloth trade so replicated the offices of guild functionaries like the officers, the quality checkers and the traders.
52) Lakenhal Museum, Leiden, Netherlands, February 22 - A favorite room was an original room from a neighboring brewer's guild hall that had been relocated to this museum to preserve it. The brewers apparently had strong feelings about the recent (at that time) introduction of tea from the colonies and had a painting made with frowning cherubs defiling a tea pot. Very funny. The top floor was dedicated to showing key events in city history including a siege during the Eighty Years War when the city was captured by Spain and then relieved by an army of Protestant volunteers, the hanging of a Catholic priest in the town square and visits by Dutch royals. Loads of very interesting information about local history from top to bottom. We spent over two hours going through the Lakenhal.
53) City Market, Leiden, Netherlands, February 22 - Wednesday is market day in Leiden so our next stop was to check out the market lined up along the New Rhine canal. The market vendors here are pros. No pop-up sun shades and folding tables - no, these folks have 30 foot long trailers with fold out canvas roofs, ice filled cabinets with glass counters and even fully mobile fish mongers with cutting blocks, ice tubs and packaging stations. Impressive stuff. There were vendors selling fish, meat, cheese, bread, nuts, vegetables and preserved dishes like olives and pickles. After strolling the market we stepped into a cafe and had a light lunch while sitting inside a window where we could watch the market shoppers outside. Very atmospheric.
54) Rijksmuseum Van Oudheden Museum (National Museum of Antiquities), Leiden, Netherlands, February 22 - After lunch we were off again to see another museum - this time the Rijksmuseum Van Oudheden - which is a branch of the National Museum system dedicated to antiquities research. Leiden was the first place in the world to have a person with the title of Director of Antiquities so there is a very long history of collecting items from around the world. Setting aside for a moment the highly discomforting history of *how* all these cultural items from all around the European and North African lands were acquired the collection is incredible. The entire ground floor is devoted to Egypt and it includes massive items like an entire temple, a burial shrine, a dozen coffins/sarcophagi, a half dozen mummies, etc, etc.
55) Rijksmuseum Van Oudheden Museum (National Museum of Antiquities), Leiden, Netherlands, February 22 - We spent two hours just going through the ancient Egypt section and rushed through part of that. The collection is *that* big. We were so fried from reading, learning and appreciating items that we took a break to get caffeine before moving on to another floor. The next floor had a special exhibit on the kingdom of Byblos that was very impressive, which says a lot since the normal collection on that same floor included large rooms each full of Etruscan, Minoan, Greek or Roman treasures. We rushed through those after spending more time than expected in the Byblos exhibition. This left us very little time to see the top floor before the museum closed. This was unfortunate because the top floor had a substantial display focused on the archeological finds of the Netherlands starting with stone age findings and then going through a timeline all the way up to modern times. This was very well done and I hated hustling through it so fast as every display case was fascinating. We managed to leave before the museum security had to shove us out but we barely had the energy - both physical and mental - to move after a full day of museum’ing. We actually called it a day with Heather bicycling back to school and us dragging ourselves back to the hotel. No dinner, no more museums or anything. Check please, were are done! We snacked, watched a couple of TV shows and then drifted off to slumber land.
56) Museum Volkenkunde (National Museum of Ethnology), Leiden, Netherlands, February 23 - First off, the highlight of the day was getting to celebrate another birthday for my sweetie. I managed to get a birthday card written and left out last night so Jonna could find it first thing this morning. I even got up a little early as a small birthday gift. We had bought some breakfast snacks at the grocery store last night so we ate in the room but then headed out to pick up some caffeine at the Starbucks in the train station across the street. Fueled up we then walked a block to Museum Volkenkunde (National Museum of Ethnology). This is a three story building with geographically separated rooms for Asia, Africa, Indonesia, North America, South/Central America, Japan/Korea, China and Oceania.
57) Museum Volkenkunde (National Museum of Ethnology), Leiden, Netherlands, February 23 - Inside each section were a variety of items ranging from tools, crafts, religious art, weapons, clothing and household items. Films were projected on the walls and in many of the sections there were also special exhibits relating to the highlighted region. The documentation was excellent with touch screens in most areas where you could select an item and get a detailed description (with multiple languages available!). My favorite part is that for many items the description included how the item had ties back to the Netherlands - either via colonial power or a Dutch scholar studying the group or a Dutch explorer going to the area or Dutch traders collecting artifacts.) It was neat to see a local connection to the many different cultures that were on display, and better yet that there was a frank discussion about some of ethical questions raised because of those relationships. We only had 1 1/2 hours available so we ended up going through many sections quickly and could easily have spent the whole day there if we'd had the time.
58) Farm Terrace Jacobushof, Boxtel, Netherlands, February 23 - As it was we were out by 11:30 and started the walk across town to a rental car office about a mile away. We got there right on time and picked up the rental car we'd reserved online. There are trains to get to the edges of the country but by the time we bought tickets for three of us to hop-on and hop-off a few different places then renting a car basically costs the same so we decided to try driving. Once we had the car we retraced our steps to get our luggage from our hotel and to pick up Heather. Whoooo ...driving in downtown Leiden is frantic. The roads are only one lane wide so many of the roads are one-way. Pedestrians, bicyclists, scooters, cars, bridges, road signs, cobblestones and intermittent street signage make it overwhelming to wind through the maze that is old town. I think I held my breath for 30 minutes until we were out of town and on the "A" road going south. Thankfully, the main roads are beyond sane. The main roads are exactly the opposite to the city with excellent drivers. We drove south for about an hour before exiting onto small country roads. We wound through a small village and then were out into farm country where we found a restaurant Jonna had read about. Farm Terrace Jacobushof is a rural farm with a very cute cafe. Very much the "gezellig" vibe (Dutch for cozy or convivial). We got to pet a farm cat, watch other customers bring their dogs inside while they ate, see the dairy cows eating just outside the back windows and got to say goodbye to the shaggy sheep in the field behind the parking area as we left. Oh, and the food was delicious as well! Back in the car we drove another couple of hours south and into the little bubble of Holland that sticks down into the gap between Belgium and Germany. This narrow strip of Holland includes the town of Maastricht which was our destination. We arrived in early evening and spent about an hour getting checked-in, the car parked in a park-n-ride parking lot (which necessitated a walk through a park to get back to the hotel) and then situated in our room. At 6pm we all three met up in the lobby and walked a few blocks into the old town to find a place for dinner. We ended up at a bar which had a decent food menu and where we found a quiet corner where we could talk over a table full of appetizers. The air was cold as we walked back to the hotel so it is probably going to be a chilly for the next couple of days as we explore Maastricht. For tonight we cranked up the heat and enjoyed the warmth as we watched a TV show on our little 8" tablet before going to bed. It wasn't a spectacular day of celebration but I think Jonna enjoyed spending her birthday traveling once again.
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