While flying to Amsterdam I read in a small travel guide that Leiden it was something like Amsterdam but small. Seeing the photos it seemed to me like a really beautiful place, perhaps the best that could be see in Holland. Therefore, it was not difficult for me to organize an excursion there.
Leiden is barely forty kilometers southwest of Amsterdam, and there are very good train connections between both cities. When I got off the train I realized that I had made the right trip. Leiden is a beautiful city of tulips and canals, which would surely inspire its most illustrious son, Rembrandt.
But Leiden is not only famous for its painter, but also for hosting the oldest university in Holland. Oh, and by the way, you don't have to see much of Leiden to realize that what that travel guide said was true. Leiden is a lot like Amsterdam, in its bridges, in its canals, in its typical ...
I loved walking through it and discovering many attractions. The guild houses of the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries on both sides of the canals, the De Valk windmill, one of the most beautiful in Holland, and even its Botanical Garden, which is precisely the oldest in Europe. In a country as flowery as Holland, how not to visit such a place, right?
If you continue walking you will also see the Museum of the Pilgrims of America, who lived in Leiden for about eleven years before returning to their lands. Another interesting museum in the city is the Boerhaave Museum, very curious since it deals with medicine in previous centuries. Leiden is a very cultural city, as it has a large number of museums.
Although I think nothing better than the charm of walking through a city full of canals and picturesque houses. You will see the Leiden Town Hall, which curiously has the widest Renaissance facade in Holland, the House of Weights and Measures or the House of Plague, both buildings built in the seventeenth century.
As in any other canal city, don't miss a boat ride from the water, to enjoy the views of another Leiden.
When I returned home, I came back with the feeling of having made the most of my trip thanks to Leiden. Since you are going through Amsterdam, make room for this charming corner.
Photo Via travel pod