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Leiden is the home of the Netherlands first University and Rembrandt. It's also where the pilgrims took refuge from England and then about 12 years later sailed to Plymouth Rock.

We only have one day and night here and wish we had more. The area near the university has some stunning streets that look like they came out of a fairy tale. There are lots of canals and the requisite shops, bars, and cafes that line them. We're not tired of that yet!

We stumbled on the Pieterskerk, The large Church near the university that was the home base of the pilgrims. It's a museum and event space now. There was a large plaque on the wall commemorating John Robinson, the lead pilgrim minister and effectively the cult leader of the Calvinist pilgrims. It boasted how tolerant he was.

And right next to it was a modern display. One of the panels explained how the pilgrims had stormed a bookmaker shop and destroyed the printing press plates for a book that they deemed sinful. They imprisoned the bookmaker for several months! John Robinson stayed behind as a group of the pilgrims later sailed to the new world.

It's hard to find Dutch food in the Netherlands. Most restaurants are ethnic, selling a variety of food from around the world. That's not the worst thing, because traditional Dutch food was fairly basic: meat, potatoes, and cheese. We did have a delicious mustard soup though. That was new for us.

The sun sets at 9:19 pm now and there's light for much longer. We wandered the city for hours enjoying the quiet, empty streets on a Tuesday night after Bevrijdingsdag, the national liberation day. Maybe everybody was nursing a hangover?

There are two working windmills in town. We toured one of them and learned a lot. Windmills were used to grind flour, drain the land by pumping water, and used as sawmills to cut planks. If not for these windmills, a lot of the Netherlands would still be under water.

Leiden is yet another great mid-sized Dutch town. We happened to be here for the Wednesday market. We bought 3 kinds of cheese for snacks later. Too bad we have to leave after just one night. Next stop is Amsterdam.

More photos and videos are here.

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