Reporting live from Leiden!

[WillTravel]

I took a daytrip to Leiden today, and I'm writing from an Internet cafe there.

Wow, what a place. It's a beautiful smaller town.

By impulse, I was walking past a church with beautiful bells and organ and I attended the 10 AM service. I wasn't even sure what denomination, but I figured out from their books that it was Dutch Reformed. The congregation looked like one you might see in a conservative American church about 35 years ago or so, in terms of dress and mannerisms. It was interesting to see a side of Holland that's not all about drugs, sex, or avant-gardism. Actually, it seemed like most of the Dutch people in Canada are quite conservative, and I see that it's probably because they are from smaller towns. I looked in my guidebook and it mentioned some towns and villages where people dress in conservative black garments still and don't like driving, TV, or vaccinations (so sounds similar to the Amish or Old Order Mennonites). But I won't have a chance to visit those.

Then I had a really good cafe latte at the Bagel and Beans coffeehouse (not "coffeeshop"). Then I visited the Stedelijk (can't recall the full name) which has some excellent Renaissance paintings at the moment. Note that different towns in Holland all seem to have Stedelijk museums (I think Stedelijk might mean municipal).

And I've done lots and lots of walking around in this beautiful town. If you like the canals and look of Amsterdam, but want it in a peaceful way, try Leiden.

My daughter rented a bike yesterday from Mike's Bike Tours for 21 Euros for 3 days. She is having a great time with biking (she decided not to daytrip out of Amsterdam).

Amsterdam is great too. I walked around for about six hours yesterday after landing at the airport and getting to our hotel, including a Red Light district walk by New Amsterdam Tours. It's not a place where I'd want to visit on my own (although it seemed safe enough). Although the guide explained that these women are not junkies and are engaged in this job in order to make huge sums of money, I didn't get a feeling that they were that thrilled with their profession. What people often forget about the Red Light District is that it has some of the oldest architecture in the city, so it's very interesting to visit from that standpoint.

Tomorrow I am meeting up with a friend who lives near Amsterdam and we are going to go around together.

This is my second visit to Amsterdam - I'm not running out of things to do in the slightest.

[pointofnoreturn]

Great to hear from you and that you're having a lovely time! I'll have to refer to this post with regards to the art museums if I plan to go to Amsterdam in the future!

Keep them coming!

[herrbert]

Hi WillTravel,

It's indeed nice to hear, that you are having a good time in the Netherlands. And you are sooooooo lucky with the weather. Last week it was raining. (the worst day was Thursday, it rained when I opened the curtains, and it was still raining, when I went back to sleep in the night).

Leiden is nice, but normally it's a busy place (not a hectic as Amsterdam, but still busy), as it has a couple of universities, but the students are still on holiday, so it's a more quiet now than usual.

I think that Will Travel was talking about Stedelijk museum de Lakenhal: www.lakenhal.nl/en/index.html, And indeed we our own little bible belt. Actually a couple of small ones. Also well-known tourist-town Urk (once an Island) has a very religious protestant population.

And especially for PONR, links for the three art major museums in A'dam:
www3.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp
www.rijksmuseum.nl/index.jsp?lang=en
www.stedelijk.nl/

Other good art museums in the Netherlands:
Groninger museum in Groningen (the town itself is also beautiful): www.groningermuseum.nl/?lan=Engels
van Abbemuseum (modern art) in Eindhoven: www.vanabbemuseum.nl/engels/index.html
Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht, like Groningen amongst the more beautiful cities in the Netherlands: www.bonnefanten.nl/engels/index.html
Kunsthal in Rotterdam: www.kunsthal.nl/english/index.html
Booijmans van Beuningen, also in Rotterdam: www.boijmans.rotterdam.nl/smartsite.dws?id=2131834 (website not functioning, yet)
Eschermuseum in Den Haag (The Hague): www.escherinhetpaleis.nl/

[Eagle]

WT, It's great to hear that you're enjoying your trip, and thanks for the info on Leiden!

I'll be heading across "the pond" again in a month, but unfortunately won't be on the continent this time.

Have fun!

[WillTravel]

Now I'm in Bucharest, but just for the night.

When we arrived in OTP airport, we were swarmed by men offering us taxis. I had read ahead to know this was no good. I was getting frazzled by these taxi-offerers so I couldn't figure out how to line up for the legitimate taxi (Fly Taxi). I had a plan to take Bus 783 anyway. This is a hot, crowded bus which moved slowly through the continuous high-volume Bucharest traffic, but at least it leaves right from the airport. And the tickets are super-cheap. But I was looking for my stop as Piata Universitati (close to that spelling anyway), but it never came. Then I realized I was at the last stop. Fortunately I had noted this was close to a metro stop, so we quickly figured out the metro and took it back one stop. That's the short version - it was hot, and muggy and hard to communicate with anyone and there were lots of stairs. Oh, and once we got to the hotel, I realized they had changed the name from Piata Universitati to something like Piata 22 Dec. de 1989 (the date the Romanian revolution started, as this was the square where it started). Lonely Planet is about six months old, so it was no help there. The bus map at the place you catch the bus had the old name too.

This is one of the smallest squares I've seen, never mind squares where recent revolutions started.

I've seen some beggars, lots of flower-sellers, a male beggar with a baby, an apparent non-beggar, but an old woman dressed completely in black complete with headscarf who looked like she had stepped out a Grimm fairy tale. The horns honk continuously, and the traffic is hard to believe.

The hotel is absolutely beautiful - the nicest I've probably stayed at in my life. We'll be back August 24-26. We are on the 12th floor and have a balcony and a great view - of a crumbling city. But there is also Ikea, and Sephora, and Vodaphone, a Peugot dealership, a Jaguary dealership, and many other famous brand names.

I can see why people might avoid this city, but in a way I wish I had more time for it. My daughter has refused to leave the room since arriving - I guess the bus and metro incidents were too much for her.

[jennifer]

Hey! Happy to hear from you!
Keep safe!
jen

[pointofnoreturn]

Caught your recap on Fodors - I love to hear about cities that are not normally popular among travellers and thank you so much for taking the time to write these recaps. The one thing I'm terrified about when arriving in a new city is the public transportation and going to your hotel for the first time... especially, when there's no English signs! I'd be a nervous wreck and not wanting to miss my stop, etc even though I'm good with that stuff!

Can't wait to hear from you soon!

[Eagle]

PONR, regarding finding the way to lodgings in a new city for the first time - I usually choose Hotels or whatever that are reasonably close to the rail stations I'll be using, and I also take a photocopied Map with the route highlighted. Once I get outside the station, it takes me a couple of minutes to get my bearings, but I can usually find the Hotel fairly quickly. If the Hotel is a bit further from the station, I often use a Taxi rather than wear myself out going a long distance with a heavy Backpack.

Cheers!

[freshsprout]

Wow, Red Light District in Amsterdam... doesn't get more progressive than that. I would love to see Amsterdam some day... they have the best graphic design there too.

Great post, thanks for sharing.

[WillTravel]

It is hard to go to a strange city where there's little English spoken and use public transportation. My problem with the train station solution is that those areas are often not the nicest (like Gare du Nord in Paris and Termini in Rome and for that matter Centraal Station in Amsterdam). You can usually plan ahead by checking out the city web sites to see how the transport works. You can get an idea how difficult it will be and at least you will know what to do.

We are in London right now. I had checked ahead on www.thetube.com , and knew the Victoria line would be closed when we arrived. This meant we would either have three tube lines to take, or two buses. I knew that bus aisles in London are too narrow for almost any luggage at all, and extremely uncomfortable to try to maneuver with luggage. Three tube lines with stairs is no fun either. So for the first time ever in London, we took a taxi after arriving at Victoria Station (13 pounds to the Holborn area, plus tip).

Another time we suffered taking public transport from the airport was Madrid in August 2005 - this involved three metro lines and some without air-conditioning. Yes, it saved money, but there was definitely suffering involved.

PONR, another city worth visiting is Haarlem (near Amsterdam). The art museums were closed when I visited, though.

Freshsprout, the red light district did not seem that progressive. If it's true that women are in charge of these financial arrangements, great for them, but I have a feeling this might not be true particularly for eastern European and north African women. The women are divided up in different areas of the RLD by ethnic group.

[herrbert]

If it's true that women are in charge of these financial arrangements, great for them, but I have a feeling this might not be true particularly for eastern European and north African women.

In an official way they are, but in reality they are not. The women are considered to be entrepreneurs, who have an own business. But to practice there business, they need to rent a room. The prices of these rooms, are determent by the people who used to be the 'employers', and can be very high. So if there is any freedom, it's only superficial.

And yes Madrid, can be hell. If you are hauling around with a backpack or suitcases. You have to figure out in advance, with stations have lifts, and which don't. (the same for London.) If you make the mistake, to make a switch at Cuatro Caminos, you will have to climbs four long stairs with your pack/suitcases. Always switch at Nuevos Ministerios, and for the center at Tribunal. I learned it the hard way too.

[WillTravel]

Cologne is a great airport, and it is one where it is super-easy to manage public transport from. We arrived there last night around 22:35 and were on the train into town (about 16 minutes trip) at 23:04. This included going through immigration and getting our luggage and buying the tickets. Germanwings from Stansted was fine, EasyBus is a great service.

Today I visited Aachen. I see I have missed a fair bit by not visiting more smallish places (although Aachen is not really small, given its population of a quarter-million). Lots of medieval components to this city where Charlemagne used to rule.

[WillTravel]

Very cool moments in the last hour. I was walking around Cologne Cathedral several times (I like to look and look and look at impressive buildings). The organist was playing (this is at 11 PM at night). So imagine this huge Gothic cathedral late at night, with strains of organ music coming out the sides. The fact that the square is well lit up might detract from the possible horror element.

[WillTravel]

In less than 12 hours, we leave for the airport for our flight home.

In Bucharest right now where it is 100F (38C). I saw an amazing collection of Romanian religious art, including items from the 14th century. Plus an avant-garde exhibition and other Romanian art.

But jeepers - being in those buildings with poor air conditioning is pretty tough on wimpy me. But it is simply amazing to have these fantastic collections basically all to myself.

I am chilling out, literally, in an Internet cafe.

[pointofnoreturn]

Holy crap, it's 38C? I'm sure you're not used to extreme heat since you live in Vancouver but that's definitely an experience. I narrowly missed the 40C-plus days in Athens a mere 2 days after I flew out. Whew.

I'm going to have to start looking into Romania for possibly future travels (don't know when, but it may be fun to look into guidebooks for that). Thanks so much for taking the time to post your reports - it's been cool reading your posts about a destination that's not so widely-known with regards to European travel.