If you're an American the name Leiden may ring a bell from grade school history classes because it’s where the Pilgrims lived for about 11 years between leaving England because of religious persecution and sailing for America. Actually, only about half of the pilgrim colony sailed for America via Plymouth, England. The other half stayed in Leiden and became absorbed into the Dutch community, the kind of cultural assimilation those who went to America feared. You can learn all about this in the Pieterskerk, the huge Gothic church near the center of Leiden. You can see the location of where they lived in Leiden as well, but the area was rebuilt about 50 years after they left so nothing remains of their community. Incidentally, nine American presidents including the Roosevelts, the Bushes, and Obama claim some ancestry from those who sailed on the Mayflower.

Leiden is better known in the world as the location of the Netherlands oldest and most prestigious university, founded in 1575 and particularly excelling in humanities and social science, including having the world’s first university archaeology department . So it’s fitting that the Rijkmuseum van Oudheden, the national collection of Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and other antiquities is located near the university, as is one of the world’s oldest botanical gardens where the first tulips that made it to Europe were planted, as well as one of the oldest astronomical observatories in Europe.

Like other towns in the Netherlands, Leiden is criss-crossed by canals that make for especially scenic views on clear days like the morning I was there when the attractive buildings that line the canals are reflected in the water. Technically speaking, the Rhine (or Rijn in Dutch) is considered to flow through Leiden, but most of the water exits the delta via Rotterdam and what’s considered part of the Meuse, although the Rhine is the longer and larger river for most of its course. Rembrandt van Rijn was from Leyden, and it was one of the most significant towns artistically in Holland during the Dutch "Golden Age" of the 1600s.

One of Leyden’s major attractions, the Lakenhal Museum of Art, is currently closed, so I figured I could combine Leyden with Haarlem on a long day trip from Amsterdam if I got an early enough start. The fact, though, is even without the Lakenhal I could easily have spent a full day in the town since I felt I rushed myself a bit and skipped some other sights in order to take in the highlight of both cities in one day. Between the museums, the Hortus Botanicus (botanical garden), the Pieterskerk and other churches and other sights, Leiden would be well worth spending and entire day.