Boating In Leiden

This past weekend we were joined by our friends, Mark, Carol & Caroline Sechler, as we boated around the canals in Leiden. Only 10 minutes by car from Wassenaar, Leiden has several historical interests.....a one-year siege by Spain in 1573, the birthplace of Rembrandt and of course the starting point for many of the Pilgrims prior to their departure for Plymouth Rock.  The downtown has retained its European look with coffee shops, canals, an absence of parking spaces and narrow buildings. 

Due to our lack of boating experience, we were a little nervous about this adventure.  The boat rental folks told us that if we could drive a car, we could drive this boat. We essentially proved this to be true.  There was only one time when we had to employ the "everyone get on that side of the boat and push us away from that wall" technique and that was in the midst of a three point turn to prepare for docking at the coffee shop.  There were several low bridges that required the crew to duck down, but we never scraped the awning.  And we did make one wrong turn that sent us to a less scenic section of Leiden, but now we can say we've seen the Heineken Brewery, the cement plant and the Volvo Car Dealership. 




Big Smile after a successful docking (with all the coffee shop customers watching out the window)




Another way to decorate large hay bales





The Skipper and Gilligan



No Holland Blog would be complete without a picture of a windmill



Karnemelkbrug translates to "Buttermilk Bridge".  Sounds like the Candyland game.