Day 15 (July 20, 2018): Leiden and Utrecht

Another early rise, and after breakfast at the hotel, we headed back to Rotterdam Central Station to get a 9AM train to the city of Leiden (population: 121,000).  So many cities in the south of Holland are easily connected by train in under 45 minutes. We are so pleased that we choose Rotterdam as our base and have used the trains to fan out from here.  Lieden, for example, took less than half an hour.

Leiden’s key sights are within a 1 km radius, so it was easy to see all the things we wanted to by walking.

We took a 1:30PM train onwards to Utrecht, a town of 334,000, of which 40,000 are university students. As with Leiden, the key sights are fairly concentrated. Both cities are jampacked with museums of every variety you can imagine. But a person can only take in so many museums in a two-week period, and we are reaching a saturation point.  So our museum and detailed church tours were kept to a minimum today.

By 5PM, we were ready to return to Rotterdam. Being a Friday afternoon, the trains were packed. However we found seats for the 40-minute ride back to Rotterdam Central Station. From there we hunted down an Asian restaurant and enjoyed a good dinner. 

Tomorrow, we begin our 12th and final European city: Amsterdam. The tour was deliberately designed to end with a “major highlight city”, so we are looking forward to all that Amsterdam has to offer.

Leiden:  De Valk windmill.

In the heart of Leiden's historical canal zone.

Leiden's city hall.

Leiden American Pilgrim Museum.  We were surprised to realize that the pilgrims who went to America in 1620 aboard the Mayflower, had been living in Leiden and departed from here!  The USA therefore owes so much of its foundation to Leiden, and even a number of US Presidents have had Leiden Pilgrims as ancestors, including Bush senior and junior and Obama. 

The Pilgrim Museum is a house that dates back to the Leiden Pilgrim days, and is furnished exactly as per the year 1620.

The 15th century Hooglandse Kerk is an agglomeration of styles.

Pieterskerk from the 14th century.  This church showed us ow dramatic the change from Catholicism to Protestantism was in the Netherlands in the 1500s.  From July 1562 to October of that year, the church was closed, to permit the complete removal of all things Catholic.  The Dutch Reformed Church is incredibly simple and plain, and the walls actually showed the 500-year old signs of Catholic symbols being removed from walls and pillars.

Inside Leiden's Pieterskerk.

In the 16th century, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq was serving as the ambassador of the Habsburg monarchy to the Ottoman Empire. While visiting Turkish sultan Suleiman the Magnificant, a fan of tulips, he was given some bulbs to take back to Vienna.  De Busbecq then passed the tulip bulbs on to his friend, Flemish botanist Charles de l'Écluse. When d'Écluse left Vienna to teach at the university here in Leiden, he brought the bulbs along and planted them.  As the director of the botanical gardens in Leiden, he experimented with the exotic flower - and was so successful that the tulip became a highly sought-after import among the local wealthy residents.  Hence tulip mania was born!  And that's why we visited the important Hortus Botanicus in Leiden.

Giant lilies at Hortus Botanicus, the Leiden botanical garden.

Apple strudel is THE dessert from here!

Another example of the ingenious way that bicycles have been used to suit the needs of the Dutch.  This is a "family carrier".

The Moorgate, gate of the city of Leiden.

And now for a change of pace:  arrival at Utrecht's ulta modern Central Station.

Uthrecht: This is the "Domtoren" or Cathedral Tower.  It was attached to a huge cathedral until August 1, 1674, when hurricane force winds hit the Netherlands, and over half the central part of the building collapsed.  The bell tower has stood alone ever since, and the back portion of the cathedral continues to be used, known as the Domkerk.

Utrecht: The Domtoren and Domkerk from a small garden tucked behind the church.

Utrecht: Interior of the Domkerk.

This is part of Utrecht University.  The Treaties of Utrecht had much influence on Europe, and indeed, even on Atlantic Canada.  Also called he Peace of Utrecht (April 1713–September 1714), these were a series of treaties between France and other European powers, and another series between Spain and other powers, concluding the War of the Spanish Succession.  The documents had a profound impact on the future of Europe to this day.

The smaller Pieterskerhof curch in Utrecht.

Utrecht's statue of Anne Frank.  Although we tried to get tickets to see the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam over a month before our trip, it was long sold out.  So it was nice to find Utrecht's statue to Anne.

Overlooking one of Utrecht's fine canals.

Looks like a UFO made landing at this office tower near Utrecht Central Station.

Utrecht's ultra modern train station.

We continue to be intrigued by Dutch innovation!  Imagine Canada Post carriers using an adapted Segway like this to deliver mail.  Amazing!

Maybe it was because the hotel restaurant was playing Harry Connick Junior's Cristmas album at breakfast, but somehow, we were in the Christmas mood!  Hence, finding Santa on a street corner was a welcome sight.