A Day in Amsterdam, A Day in Leiden

 After so many days of running around we really needed to get some stuff done here. There was some washing of clothes to do by hand, shopping, that sort of thing. Also, we were just tired and after breakfast went back to sleep.

One of the women who works at the front desk had sent me a list of restaurants that specialized in gluten free food. One of the places was across the street, Mediterranean, with lots of gluten free options. We decided to try that. Also, we’d found an organ concert at a church nearby, and wanted to attend.

We went shopping and got some more French wine that we have been enjoying in the evening then went across the street to the Mediterranean restaurant. Wow, what amazing food they have. We decided that we’d probably go there for our go-to meals. It is just down at the next corner and across the street.

There are several items we want to try. For now, we had a grilled chicken thighs with a mushroom cream sauce. The sauce isn’t very creamy as in cream, but just a nice thick sauce. They gave us bread, olives and some artichoke salad on the side, which were all excellent. We also ordered a bean salad that I will try to make at home.

The organ concert was great. We decided that organ concerts are best in catholic churches with all of the saints and gods and angles floating around up to the beautiful stained-glass domes along with the music.

We were looking forward to an early night of sleep, but instead had our usual, snacks at 11:30 pm and into bed by 12:30.

The following morning, we planned to make one more day trip, this time to Leiden. Rick Steves recommend this trip and it just sounded nice. Leiden is about ½ hour by train and a university town. Albert Einstein taught at this university and students have include politicians and famous people.   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiden_University

It had also been forecast to rain but when we left there was no rain. We did not fear as we had our new umbrellas and our rain coats. We were ready.

Again, we got to the train station, bought our tickets and the train was boarding. We started to run but the conductor said that they would wait for us. We hopped on board and found a seat.

We got off the train in Leiden and stopped to see which way to go. Rick Steves said that there was a herring place outside. Sure enough, we just got out the door of the station and there was a little trailer selling herring, like our taco trucks. 

There was a crowd buying herring but we had to see what was being offered. Pickled Herring in a cream sauce and with beets!!! We haven’t had these since we were in Iceland. The herring in a cream sauce used to be in stores in LA. We’d eat jars of this stuff but how haven’t seen it in ages, so of course, we had to buy a pint jar of each. 

We decided that we were actually hungry so found a little place to stand and started to eat. Then it started to rain, and really rain. We packed up our herring, went to a covered alcove, put on our rain coats and moved to a table by a Starbucks. Of course, the rain stopped but we just sat and finished up the entire 2 jars of herring. 

An old windmill

The Carpenter's House from 1620

After we finished our herring, we started to do our walk and saw some people eating herring the Dutch way, raw, holding it up in the air then as they drop it into their mouth, take a bite, eat and so on until it is gone. And even though we love sushi, we just couldn’t do this.

Leiden is famous for other things, besides it’s herring, it is the birth place of Rembrandt and it is where the Pilgrims stayed before going back to England to sail to the New World.

The house that the leader of the Pilgrims lived in

We walked by the university first and as it turned out, it was a graduation day for at least 1 of the schools so we saw women and men dressed up with their diplomas and families. It was fun to see the graduates and their families but made the immediate areas very busy.

This is the site where the house was where Rembrandt was born and raised. The sculptures are of Rembrandt young looking at himself when he was old.

We visited the area where the house was when Rembrandt grew up, walked by his school, visited the site of the orphanage, and the area that the Pilgrims lived before leaving. There is a home, very old home, called the Pilgrims home that has items used at the time they would have lived there. Unfortunately, it was closed so we could only look in the windows.

The fortress at the top of the man made hill

After several hours of walking, we made it to the windmill museum but it was closed. By that time, I was starving and had to get food. We found a restaurant on the square that had pancakes, lots of types of pancakes and gluten free. We had one pancake with brie and tomatoes and one with ham, mushrooms and cheese. The pancakes were more like a crepe but so good.

Mushroom, bacon and cheese pancake on the left and brie and tomato on the right.

Another great day and lots of good food.