Discover Leiden’s History on a Scenic Boat Trip

When we were visiting Leiden we decided to explore the city on a boat trip with Stichting de Leidse Rederij. They are located right in the city center so a boat tour can be easily combined with other activities in the city center. We took a simple 1 hour boat tour at the end of the day at 4PM. No extra’s like catering and so on, just the boat tour with the captain of the boat functioning also a local guide. Our guide talked the full hour, pointing to interesting land marks along the tour and telling little history stories and some jokes to go along. That way we learned some interesting facts about some of the buildings and important figures in the history of Leiden with some gossip added here and there to season it. Because some of the other people on the boat spoke German we could hear everything twice: once in Dutch and then the German translation. Our guide turned out to be a retired school teacher who taught sports. It was an enjoyable hour and I can highly recommend Leidse Rederij to take such a boat tour. At the end of the tour he gave us some tips about places to have a drink to re hydrate after an hour in the blazing sun on the boat. We decided to make good on his information and went for a drink at Stadsbrouwhuis Leiden before returning to the hotel for dinner. This is a microbrewery/restaurant/bar and their choice of different beers is enormous but I went for a refreshing half litre of Weizen beer they had on tap. It is a popular place and most tables were reserved for people coming for dinner. Because we were early we were allowed to sit a reserved table as long as we would vacate it by the reservation time which was around 6:30PM. After our drink we walked back to the station and took the bus back to the hotel. Getting around with public transport is one of the definitive advantages of living in a city but in a city as small as Leiden I would probably opt for taking a bicycle every time the weather allows it.