Leiden

Leiden     7-23-2011     15:07

Today is somewhere between drizzle and rain. Not so bad really. We’re supposed to leave tomorrow but the weather looks nasty, especially for wind. When we went down to the Harbormaster’s office to pick up another electrical token, we asked him how bad it had to be for us to be allowed to stay for another day and he’s already given us permission! Whoopee!!!! I was ready to try to get out of here, even though we’ll have to back out, but this is much better and gives us an extra day to do a float plan for the next stage of our journey. Went to the market this morning.

WONDERFUL market here.

Went on for blocks and blocks either side of the Nieuwe Rijn canal.  

Lots of fish, didn’t see any meat, veg by the trainload and all super fresh

Good bakeries. Bill found a place to buy small amounts of firewood for the stove, so we’re all set for a cozy time at home if we get a real blow. Leiden is truly a lovely city once you get out of the shopping district, but I’m not sure they make the most of it. We received reams of glossy information when we arrived, beautifully published, but none of it of any real use. The tourist information office is near the station, and totally on the other side of town from us. Quite a hike, but that’s fine. Problem was, once we got there they couldn’t answer any of our questions, fairly basic ones about what to see in the city. Just handed us a map of the city center and smiled. The marina itself is a bit of a generic marina,

not at all the lovely views and sounds we were spoiled by in Haarlem. We did go out on a lunch-and-photo ramble around noon and stumbled on an organ recital

in the Hooglandse church,

that was quite lovely, and later a street organ entertaining kids of all ages in the shopping district.

I suspect that there is much more here to interest us than in Haarlem, we’d just have to struggle to find it and, since they want you gone in three days, it’s a bit difficult to do that. Maybe we’ll just have to stop again on our way back to winter moorings and spend more time.