Lovely Leiden

It's a fun day trip from either Den Haag or Amsterdam.

Molen De Valk dates back to the 18th century and is now a museum telling the story of Dutch windmills.

We spent the afternoon in Leiden, a lovely university town that’s just 12 minutes by train from Den Haag.

Leiden University was founded here in 1575 and is the oldest university in The Netherlands. It’s where King Willem-Alexander studied history, drank a lot of beer and once drove his car into a canal. That aside, the king seems like a pretty cool guy — he’s been a guest pilot with KLM Airlines for the past 25 years.

More seriously, it’s also where a lot of really great science has been conducted — the university has 16 Nobel Laureates.

We came on a Saturday to enjoy the massive market along the canal, and tour the university’s botanical gardens, and took a cruise along the canals.

The gardens — free with your Museumkaart — are very nice and worth a stop. The greenhouse has a rare “corpse flower” (Amorphophallus decus-silvae) that last bloomed a year ago. (It smells like rotting flesh when it’s doing its thing apparently.)

When the weather is this nice, Dutchies go enjoy the sun as possible. (It’s going to be cloudy and rainy most of next week.)

One thing we hadn’t done yet is a canal cruise so we enjoyed one before heading back to Den Haag. It cost 12 euros and lasted 55 minutes. The boat was electric (so super quiet) and the tour guide spoke both English and Dutch.