Netherlands 2004 - Day 7
Scott Andrew Bird
July 5, 2004
Leiden
The last full day in The Netherlands - for this trip at least - and the weather was perfect. Far too good to waste any of it indoors.
After breakfast I headed into town, which is always pretty sleepy on a Monday. Many shops didn't open until the afternoon, and this fact combined with the weather made it a great time to explore the south side of the town.
This included the area around the Hortus Botanicus, Europe's oldest botannical garden ( begun in 1587 ). This is where Carolus Clusius began researching medicinal plants in 1592; as well as planting some bulbs from Turkey known as Tulips.
South of the gardens the town began to assume the large roads/big car dealerships role familiar to the fringes of cities around the world, and I headed back toward the centre via a few canalside streets hitherto unexplored. I arrived once again at De Burcht, and decided to soak in a bit of sunshine on the grassy slopes beneath it. There was a strong temptation to spend the rest of the afternoon just lazing in the sun, but I decided a bit more canalside walking was in order instead.
By 5pm I was hungry, sunburnt and exhausted, so I grabbed a reasonably healthy dinner from the station (surprisingly the station in Leiden is much better equipped this way than the Centraal Station in Den Haag ) and headed back to the hotel.
A hot bath never felt so good.
Portobello, Edinburgh (2004)
Cramond, Edinburgh (2004)
The Netherlands (2004)
Holyrood Park (2004-2005)