Leiden

Leiden is what Amsterdam looks like without the pressure: rings of canal, brick gables, drawbridges and almshouse courtyards, on a scale you can cross on foot in twenty minutes. The university was founded in 1575 and still sets the tone, along with a botanical garden laid out in 1590 where some of the first tulips in the country were grown. In the middle of the old town a circular wall sits on an artificial mound, the Burcht, left from the earliest settlement, and from its parapet the rooftops and the two big churches line up. More than a hundred poems in many languages are painted on housefronts around the centre, part of a project that has run for decades.

What you actually see

• The Burcht - the round wall on its mound in the middle of town, free to climb for the rooftop view.
• The Hortus Botanicus - the university garden from 1590, with old glasshouses and a tulip connection.
• The wall poems - poems painted on housefronts across the old town, each in its original language.
• The canal rings and hofjes - quiet water streets and the almshouse courtyards behind their doors.

When to go

Spring, when the bulb fields are a short ride away and the garden is at its best, or summer evenings along the canals. Term time makes the town livelier, August empties it. Several museums close on Mondays. The hofjes are private homes and can only be walked into during daytime hours.

Honest expectations

The big museums are the draw for many visitors and each is ticketed separately, which adds up fast. The old town is small and starts repeating itself after a few hours. Cycle traffic through the narrow centre is heavy and gives no quarter. Rain leaves you dependent on museums, where queues move slowly.

Nearby

The bulb fields and Keukenhof are twenty minutes north, and the coast at Katwijk is close.