Whew! We have had a crazy couple of weeks. In quick succession we were visited by Gena and Tim, our friend Janel, and Kurt's parents. Plus this week is '3 October', a huge festival commemorating the 1574 siege of Leiden by the Spanish. To prevent the loss of your attention before you reach the end of one long post I am going to split this update into two posts.
On Friday September 20th 9:30 am, my big sis and her hubby glided into Schiphol Airport and the boys and I went to meet them at the train station. I had estimated that they would get to Leiden at about 10:15 but I totally forgot to account for the fact that they would have to go through customs once they got in. So the boys and I enjoyed an hour of people watching and croissant nibbling at the train station. Which only made it all the sweeter when our eyes finally landed on two familiar faces; Gena and Tim made it safely with all their luggage (as opposed to the Spanish honeymoon where their luggage caught up with them about a week later).
After lunch and nap we took them into the city to see the Burcht (the old citadel) as we have done with everyone who has visited us. Kurt, who had been on an outting with his lab colleagues, joined us for a dinner of homemade Indonesian food and together we mapped out our adventure for Saturday. Kurt highly recommended a trip to the sand dunes (the same trip he had done that day) but I wanted to take them to see Teylingen castle which we had learned about from Open Monument Weekend. So we compromised: We did both.
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| Gena and Tim on the dune trail |
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| Teylingen |
In the morning Gena and Tim rented bikes, we packed some food and water, and set out on an hour long ride to the sand dunes beyond Wassenaar. The dunes were made from centuries of sand blown in by the North Sea winds. They are vegetated with scrub brush and short trees and are, in a word, amazing. The government has marked these dunes for preservation and has crisscrossed them with horse and bike trails. We stopped for a seaside picnic lunch at De Gouden Bal which kindly had a swing set for Leif and Klaus to climb around before we tossed them back in the trailer for another hour ride to the castle. The boys took a nap as we pedaled through towns and fields until finally off in the distance we spotted the red brick tower of Teylingen. This 13th century castle ruin, while roofless, still has a complete circular castle wall and a water filled moat. At the time we visited, there just happened to be a group of archers practicing in the grassy inner courtyard. The twang and swish of the bow and arrows added to the medieval ambiance of the place. We walked around the tower ruins and then sat in the grass and watched the archers while snacking on leftover picnic food. The castle staff seemed very pleased that we had made the effort to visit. And so were we. It was a very idyllic afternoon. In all we pedaled 30 miles that day. For most of it Gena had a hard time keeping up with the rest of us. She figured it was just because she did not bike as often as Tim, Kurt and I. But, when we got home, we discovered that the back tire on her bike was flat, so actually she had been working twice as hard as the rest of us. Poor Gene's bad luck follows her ever to Europe. Sorry, Suess!
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| Stadsmolen |
Sunday just happened to be Molen Dag (Windmill Day) in Leiden. Leiden has 9 existing windmills but not all of them are open to the public on a regular basis. Since Gena and Tim still had their bike rentals we hopped on our bikes, estimating that we could hit three windmills before nap time. The first one we hit was the 1856 Stadsmolen, an adorable brick based windmill near our house in a sadly rather commercial area. This is what is know as a poldermolen which means that it is used to pump water to the right place. These windmills were essential to the Dutch fight to claim their land from the sea. They were used to pump water into canals so that the land could be dried out and used for farming. Amazingly we were allowed to go up into the molen while it was working and see all the wooden gears turning with the wind. There is a cute living space on the ground floor with a small fireplace. It was very quaint and very dutch.
Then we headed over to the largest windmill in Leiden, Molen De Valk. This was and still is a flour mill on the edge of the city's outter canal. There used to be windmills lining the entire canal but now only this one and one that was rebuild in the 80s are all that remain. A three story living space where the mill owner's family lived creates the bottom part of the windmill. Above that is five levels of mill workings, giving the whole windmill a towering height. Leif and Klaus were getting a bit sleepy and petulant as we reached the top floors so we took a few quick pictures of the city view and then headed home for lunch.
When we got the boys down for nap, Tim, Gena, and I went back out to the last windmill, Molen de Put. This mill is the 1980s replica of a mill that was built in 1619. It is located just across the canal from the spot where Rembrant was born. He was sure to have seen the construction of the original in his lifetime. To get inside one has to climb a ladder-like staircase. Since it was later in the day the crowds had grown, adding to the challenge of seeing the mill. We saw the inside but did not linger too long.
When the boys woke up we rented a boat and did a canal tour. Unfortunately the weather had turned a bit rainy. We had to return the boat before sunset. The thick clouds pushed sunset up to about 7 so we didn't get a chance to take the boat out to the lakes. We puttered about the canals in town and munched on bread and cheese, olives and beer.
On Monday, we (minus Kurt who had to go back to work) hopped a train to Delft. We headed straight to the crooked tower of Oude Kerk where Leif and Klaus engaged in their favorite old-church activity: prancing over the uneven stone floors. To set the tone, the church was playing some organ music over a few scattered speakers. During one particularly melancholy song, Leif turned to me and said "I'm happy. I'm happy." before bursting into tears. This occasionally happens with Leif and sad music and he is a bit inconsolable until the song ends. I'm not sure that Gena and Tim really got their fill of the church but they graciously went with us to get some lunch in the square where there was no sad music. After lunch we toured Niewe Kerk and then the boys and I headed home for nap. Gena and Tim came home later that afternoon and we all had dinner together.
When we got the boys to bed, my sweet sister and her husband sent Kurt and I out for drinks and dessert to celebrate our anniversary. I almost fooled the waitress into thinking I spoke Dutch until she asked if we wanted an extra spoon for the creme brule. Rats! Fail!
On Tuesday morning we took Gena and Tim to the Museum Boerhaave, the science and medicine museum. Gene enjoyed seeing the old medical equipment and the boys again enjoyed the Christian Huygens exhibit. After lunch we sadly bid farwell to our guests and sent them off to Amsterdam and beyond.
To come down off the high of our visit with Tim and Gena, we fortunately had a short visit with our friend Janel from Colgate. When the conference she had been attending in Amsterdam ended, she took the train to Leiden and hung out with us for an evening. We made her dinner and took her to the Burcht. It had been quite a while since we had seen Janel last so we had a lot to chat about. The boys loved her instantly and there were some misty eyes when we walked her to the train station in the morning.
Whew! Stay tuned for the second half of our busy fantastic 2 weeks of visitors!...
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