Leiden

You will be enchanted by Leiden's charm, elegance, friendlyness and hidden treasures. A visit to the city, nicknamed key city, can be an enriching experience; it will stimulate your curiousity and invite you to take a look into it's illustrious past.

Leiden has some fantastic museums. Dinosaur skeletons, masterpieces by Rembrandt and Lieven, Indonesian wayang golek puppets, medical history from blood-letting to breast protheses, an Egyptian temple, Japanese treasures, everything about Leiden's Ontzet (end of the Spanish siege in 1574) or an exploration through the human body: you will find all of this in Leiden's museums.

Leiden has almost 2,800 monuments such as ancient courtyards, mills, churches and city gates. The whole of Leiden's inner city may be considered one monumental centre. Because of the small distances between the most illustrious monumental buildings, it is highly recommended to take a stroll among them.

You immediatly notice that wherever you are in Leiden, you see water. Leiden has the highest quantity of water (second to Amsterdam) flowing within it's gates. Due to it's location near the Dutch Lake District, many navigational routes pass through Leiden and it's surroundings. A round trip by boat gives you the opportunity to explore Leiden from a very different viewpoint.

Leiden has a lot of special shops and besides the wellknown national and international chains, the small extraordinary shops in the small streets and alleys in the historical centre will turn shopping into something very special.