Day 9 - Leiden

The canals of Leiden are beautiful, especially with the boats and trees and everything

So I had been to the central station in Leiden numerous times, but had never walked around. So I was told of some places that were good to go to, and it was also market day (Wednesday) so of course I had to find the market. So armed with my map, I headed out to find the market first. I went to the area where I thought it was supposed to be and it wasn’t there =[ So I kept walking around and voila! There was the market! I was quite excited because the first thing I saw was a rotisserie chicken stand! I was so excited (I was told there might be one there =) ] So I of course got some chicken (though I walked the length of the market first) and I also found some good Vietnamese snack food. No idea what I ate from there (I just pointed to something and it was good!) and then went back and got some chicken.

The market

Yummy chicken!!

Vietnamese food =]

I then went to the Pilgrim Museum, where they have a lot of artifacts from the Pilgrim era and it is housed in a house that was built in 1310’s and pilgrims actually stayed there (because the pilgrims went through Leiden before they came to New England) So that was cool to see. I then went to the National Museum of Antiquities. There was a lot of Egyptian things, which was neat to see and I really enjoyed that museum. I then went to the Museum of the History of Science and Medicine and absolutely loved that museum! (Does that surprise you??) It went through the whole history of medicine and science, and talked about everything from telescopes to EKGs to bugs and insects to medical instruments (ancient and modern). I kind of went in a weird direction through the museum, since the route wasn’t labeled very well, and so I kind of saw the modern stuff first and then went back through the old stuff. They also had specimens and such in jars, which was kind of cool to see. Needless to say, I very much enjoyed that museum! I then went home and the little boy and I played a Lego game which was pretty cool. We had dinner and that was about it!

I also walked around and saw a few churches.

I didn't go inside this one, but I liked how the picture turned out =]

Inside of another church. So different from the one in Amsterdam and the ones in Belgium.

Loved the red doors of this church

Loved the ceilings

Beautiful, beautiful Leiden!

Leiden has two beautiful windmills. This was one of them.