One of the central squares, bordered by canals.
The central square used to house a market for the buying and trading of cattle. A bell was rung during the trading. This bell still exists, and now lies between a Chinese and fast food Japanese restaurant.
(Actually, there are quite a few international restaurants in Leiden. I think it's because they have the university, perhaps, with people coming from all over the world. Indeed, Leiden does have an international feel. We even ate at a Mexican restaurant, complete with barstools shaped like saddles!)
Bram and I took a canal cruise.
The canals are crossed by thousands of bridges, which our boat driver advised us not to hit our heads on by standing in the boat. It was a real possibility - these bridges were low.
And I saw the observatory at the University of Leiden! I know a lot of people who have worked there at one time or another.
Flowers along the canals were in full bloom. It was a bit early for tulips, but there were thousands of daffodils!
Since there are so many canals, having a houseboat is really popular. The houseboats came in all different shapes and sizes, and were interesting to look at. A lot had a boat parked out back.
And especially for my brother - the Netherlands makes a lot of beer!
Around the city, there is something like 100 poems written on the sides of buildings in all different languages. Of course, both of the ones I saw were in French.
A lot of the houses had various shapes for the top parts of their facades. This was to help distinguish between the houses before they had numbers.
I had this interesting pizza/crepe hybrid. I don't know if this is Dutch food, or just someone's idea of interesting food.
After dinner, we enjoyed the nice twilight city.
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