South Holland

Moving on we visited in rapid succession Leiden, Delft and The Hague, finishing with Rotterdam as the grand finale before we start our journey towards Belgium and back to France.

Typical Dutch house, Leiden, 1612

We were keen to visit Leiden as the site of the first University in the Netherlands, founded in 1575. We planned to stay, as we usually prefer, in the Town Harbour but a sign before the two lifting bridges to go into the town announced that the harbour was full. The harbourmaster confirmed it on the radio. Up to then, despite travelling in the main Tourist season in the Netherlands, we had never been unable to find a berth when we needed one.There are many boats on the move but also many places for people to stay. For us it is a bit more limited as we are larger than the average, but until Leiden we had always been successful.

Memorial to Rembrandt- his house stood here.

All was not lost however. We continued on our route past that turn off, and found a very suitable mooring to the South about 2 kilometres out of the main city centre. We enjoyed the straightforward cycle path back into the city and admired the well- preserved city, though the house where Rembrandt was born has been knocked down. At least there is a plaque there and his old school is still in use and is suitably marked. Leiden has many small canals flowing through it, making an attractive backdrop for this bustling town. As usual the bike is king, though on this sunny Sunday the canals too were full of small motor boats, kayaks and even pedal boats, exploring the intricate network. There is an historic harbour full of well- preserved old boats and an excellent Museum which through the archaeological displays traces the history of the Netherlands back to Palaeolithic times. It was definitely the best such display we have seen.

Leiden's canals
The famous Jutphaas sword from c1650BC
We had to wait until after peak hour on Monday to leave through the first opening bridge, 200 metres from our mooring. It was only after passing through it that we became aware how lucky we had been. Looking back we saw a sign to announce that the bridge had not been available for passage for five days until 5am that morning due to bridgework. We had not seen any corresponding sign from our direction so did not know this. Our timing could not have been better had we planned it! That may well be why the Leiden Harbour was full. So thanking our lucky stars we proceeded well through lots of opening bridge which were worked centrally and usually quickly to allow our passage. The only exception was a very new foot/ bike bridge which was not on the chart or in the Almanac, had no button to press, no phone number to ring and no VHF Channel to call. Clearly it was not part of the centralised system. We sat for half an hour with no action until a commercial boat appeared, then a woman came out of an office somewhere and operated the bridge manually. The irony was that no- one had passed over it the whole time we were there. It looked as if it was not yet known to the cyclists either.

We had a very warm welcome into Delft where the Harbour Master came out to beckon us to a spot on the Town Quay. It was marked as unavailable on that day of the week so we would not have taken that spot, but were assured that it was reserved those days for cruise boats but as none were expected we were fine there.

Delft's (very) leaning tower!
Delft has a magnificent town square and an Oude Kerk (old Church, dating from 1040) with a tower with a very worrying tilt. Apparently it was known to lean even when it was built, caused by the ground sinking under one corner. People used to move out of the houses surrounding it when it looked too bad. Now it has been stabilised.

Delft town square

William 1, the Netherlands' first king, was assassinated in the building now the Museum (the bullet holes are preserved) and his grave and those of most subsequent monarchs are in the New Church (actually built in 1351 so not so new). Vermeer is a native of Delft so some of his works are displayed in the Museum and of course there is a great display of Delft ceramics.
From Delft we caught a tram to The Hague which seems to be a very modern city. The streets are wide and green, the modern architecture is very varied and gets away from the boxy look.

The Hague
In the Binnenhof

We visited the Peace Palace, housing the International Court of Justice and identified the stone that represents Australia's participation amongst the many nations who support this Court. The Seat of Government for the Netherlands is also in the Hague, as are the Royal residences, despite the fact that Amsterdam is the Capital. Quite confusing.
There is a very varied range of museums here but we settled on the Mauritshuis Museum with its spectacular collection, originally the Royal Painting Collection, concentrating on Dutch Masters.

 The Peace Palace in the Hague

Best Regards,

Penny and DaveThe palace Gardens

Delft pottery lampost, DelftHague, modern buildings