Looking at the map, Leiden is about the nearest decent size city and neither of us have been there before so we thought we would give it a try.
We only had a 10 minute wait for our bus number 57 which would take us to the centre of Leiden in about 45 minutes. Not surprisingly, the bus took quite a tortuous route but we didn't mind because it gave us a chance to see some of the surrounding towns. The fare was a reasonable €4 each for each journey, no return tickets are available according to the bus driver.
Of course Lynda had to have a photo on the bus,
people must have thought we were mad.
Nice fountain when we arrived in Leiden.
Really worth the money as we got an informative commentary from the 'captain' in English. There are many bridges in Leiden, some of them very low. Because of this the tour boats have to be low in the water. Trouble is, the tourists don't want to get wet / cold so, on our boat anyway, the perspex roof could be lowered at the approach to low bridges. At the first bridge the roof had to be so low that my head was touching it!
After a 50 minute cruise we had seen quite a bit of the city and set off to see the rest on foot. We were tempted to visit the botanical gardens, attached to one of the university buildings, but I didn't want to pay the €7.50 each admission charge.
Within about 3 seconds of arriving in Leiden Lynda was thinking about lunch of course. We noticed that Pieterkerk had a café attached so we went in to take a look. We had one of their platters consisting of bread, olives, nuts, chorizo sausage and supposedly cheese, but they had run out. Also part of the deal was a bowl of meatballs with spicy sauce.
The whole lot plus a slice of apple tart with cream, a bottle of beer for me and a Pepsi for Lynda came to €25.50 which I thought was pretty good.
Boat trip photos:
Roof of boat was so low my head was touching it!
This is our 'captain', quite a knowledgeable chap.
Lunch and a walk round the city:
We forgot to take a 'before' photo but lunch was very nice.
(and cheap!)
Supposedly an 'English' pub, shame there is
no Wetherspoons.
Glimpse of the botanical garden.
One of the more elaborate bridges.
So, after lunch we carried on exploring. According to the tourist map we got from the tourist office near the bus station De Burcht, a former city fortification, gives good views of the city once you climb up the steps. I can't say the view was all that spectacular but at least it was free.
Carrying on walking around enjoying the sights of the city we found ourselves in Haarlemmerstraat, apparently the longest shopping street in the Netherlands, oh joy! Actually not too bad an experience and it was amusing to see a couple of well known UK names - Holland & Barrett and would you believe Specsavers!
At the end of the street Lynda was excited to see a Chocolate Company Cafe so we had to go in for drinks. I had a cappuccino while Lynda had a disgustingly sickly hot chocolate drink. Interestingly, the café did not take cash at all, everyone has to pay by card, apparently 'safer'.
Café doesn't take cash. Try to refuse a £20 note will you?
We were about done with Leiden by now so made our way back to the bus station, just a couple of minutes away. Typically, we missed our bus by seconds and had to wait half an hour till the next one.
Once back at Nordwijkerhout we hurried back to the site to sit outside in the sunshine while it lasted.
Back at Leiden bus station, about to miss our bus.
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