Photo by Rob Van Hilten

We booked our tickets (€16.50 per person) on the the Corpus website for the 13:37 time slot. The museum is situated near the A44 highway and is rather difficult to reach. We arrived at the building at 13:15 and parked our car inside (€5 for first 4 hours parking).

We collected our tickets but quickly found out that they were running a bit late. Guests go through the ‘experience’ in groups of 10 or 15 people and our 13:37 time slot was delayed for about an hour. Apparently there had been some technical difficulties in the morning, so lots of people were hanging around in the reception area.

At 14:30 we could finally go in. We collected our audio guides and stepped onto the long escalator going into the body. The audio guides are fully automatic and are activated each time you enter a room (or rather ‘body cavity’). The 1-hour tour was very nicely done, with lights, large screens with CGI animation, 3D videos and realistic-looking ’sets’. Several times we had to sit down on a platform that moved up to the next floor level after the presentation was done. Some times we had to put on 3D glasses and other times the chairs moved and shook to add to what we were seeing. It was pretty cool.

The audio tour ended at the top (the brain) and this is where the interactive museum started. After handing in your headset you can walk around freely on the six floors of educational games to learn more about the human body. We spent about an hour in the museum.

We had a great visit. Especially the 1-hour audio guide was impressive. Children under eight are not admitted, so we expected parts to be graphic and ‘gross’, but it was all really nicely presented, from digestion to reproduction to sneezing. The entrance fee of €16.50 is kind of steep considering you only spend about 2 hours there, but considering all the audio and video effects this is actually quite understandable. It would be nice if they made parking free as the building is in the middle of nowhere with lots of vacant land around, so charging €5 on top of the €16.50 is kind of strange.

Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside, but you can find some pictures on Flickr and www.corpus-experience.nl.

Photo by Rob Van Hilten

De Meelfabriek was started in 1883 and in its heyday provided the country with 20% of its flour. It is truly a huge complex, with thirteen large buildings and silos up to thirteen stories high. The factory closed in 1988 and has been abandoned since. In 2000, the government declared it a National Monument, but the buildings are in great disarray. I often passed the factory by car and could never believe why for 19 years nothing has been done with this land, which within the historic city center of Leiden must surely be very valuable property.

The walls are covered in graffiti, there are many broken windows, and equipment, including forgotten cranes and hoses that were used to pour flour into ships, are still attached to the buildings. The whole scene reminds me very much of the abandoned Rio Tinto mines in Spain we visited in May, or the deserted houses and gold mines we saw on our trip to Colorado.

Here we entered for the tour today

Holes in the floor

We arrived at the factory at 11:00 and were greeted by large signs telling us that accessing the factory is on your own risk, you can only go in with a guide, you must be in very good health and not afraid of heights, etc. We waited for about 10 minutes while watching a short video in a large hall where the machines used to be. There were small holes in the ceiling leading into the silos. The guide told us to look through them and you could ten stories up. I wondered if there were any bats living inside.

The room was very dark and messy, with lots of machine parts laying all over the place and pipes and conveyor belts along the ceiling. There were also some dead pigeons, some eaten. The one building we were in for our tour was completely made of concrete, and the room on the ground floor had many thick concrete columns. The guide explained that this building was one of the first buildings made of re-enforced concrete in the world, and because knowledge of how much weight it could bear was so limited at the time, they actually put in way too many columns, just to be on the safe side. In newer parts you could see that the columns stood farther apart.

A room with old machines

A room with pipes and conveyor belts

The guide took us into the main staircase up ten floors. Every floor we could walk or peek into a room full of abandoned machines and pipes, conveyor belts and other abandoned equipment. He explained that the factory had been regularly refitted for different products, like peanuts and noodles, so every time the pipes had to be changed they drilled new holes in the wooden floors. It was quite bizarre to walk around with all the stuff still laying around, as if the place had been abandoned in a hurry.

The staircase took us to a large terrace with a great view of the city. This was already the end of the tour, but we stayed up here for a while and took some pictures of Leiden.

We could clearly see The Hague and Rotterdam in the distance and even make out the Euromast in Rotterdam:

The tour was very nice and it was great to finally see inside this ugly building. A separate exhibition explained about the future of De Meelfabriek. Apparently, the city has had several architects propose plans for revitalising the area, and a 2005 plan by Swiss architect Pete Zumthor was presented with a video and some displays. The plan will change the old factory into student housing, a place for cultural activities, a sky deck restaurant, hotel and sports facilities. The plan is yet to be approved by the city and will surely take many more years to complete.

Related links:

• More photos of De Meelfabriek from Open Monumentendag 2002
• De Meelfabriek.nl

The event was a huge success this year, with more visitors on Saturday than the entire weekend last year. Certain monuments could only be viewed or visited during a guided tour; the Latijnse School (the Latin School, where Rembrandt attended classes) was already fully booked for the weekend by Saturday afternoon. There were huge waits to visit the Gravensteen (old city jail) and Pieterskerk (St. Peter’s Church).

There was an incident at the Hooglandse Kerk in the morning on Saturday, when a woman who climbed up the church tower became unwell. Paramedics climbed up the tower to provide medical assistance. A fire truck ladder was raised up the tower to evacuate the woman from the tower.

We happened to be at the Hooglandse Kerk at the time, and I happened to have climbed up the tower just as the paramedics were attending to the sick woman. I had to climb down the tower using a second staircase, which was very poorly lit and nearly pitch black in some places. When I came outside the church a crowd of spectators had gathered to watch the fire truck’s ladder being used to bring the woman down. I hope she’s okay.

These are the monuments we visited on Saturday:

Zijlpoort
In the 17th century Leiden was enclosed by a city wall with eight gates. Today two of the gates still stand, including Zijlpoort, which was built in 1667. Today this gate serves as a restaurant which was opened in 1999. During restoration a portion of the city wall around the gate was rebuilt.

Zijlpoort

Museum Het Leids Wevershuis
Leiden is full of ‘wevershuisjes’, small houses like this one which were once home to cloth-makers (weavers). This house was built in the 1620’s and became Leiden’s newest museum when it opened to the public during Open Monument Weekend 2005. The interior of the house is very simple and stands as it did in the early 1900’s.

Het Leids Wevershuis

Hooglandse Kerk
Construction on this huge church began in the late 1300’s. Especially remarkable here is a giant clock mechanism which dates from 1607.

Hooglandse Kerk: gravestone from 1678; clock mechanism; chuch tower with fire truck ladder; view from the tower.

Stadhuis
The Leiden City Hall was built in the late 1500’s, shortly after the defeat of the Spanish (celebrated each year on 3 October). Meeting rooms and offices were open for public viewing. The most interesting things we saw here were the inlaid woodworks by M.C. Escher in a few rooms.

Leiden Stadhuis: Council Meeting Room

Waalse Kerk
After Leiden kicked out the Spanish in 1574, Protestants from Belgium and France flooded into the city, where they were welcome. So many Wallonians came into Leiden that they had their own French-speaking neighborhood. In 1818 they established this church.

Gemeenlandshuis van Rijnland
The Rijnland District Water Control Board (Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland) has owned this office building since 1578.

Gemeenlandshuis van Rijnland

SieboldHuis
This museum at Rapenburg 19 houses Japanese treasures from the personal collection of Philipp Franz Balthasar Von Siebold. The building dates from the early 1500’s. The museum opened its doors in 2000 and underwent extensive restoration work in 2005.

Hotel de Doelen
The buiding at Rapenburg 2 dates from 1668. The breakfast room and 18th century staircase were open for public viewing.

Rapenburg 29
This is a beautiful old canal house which was also open during Monumentenweekend last year, during renovations. The renovation is complete now and a family is living in this beautiful house. One remarkable detail is the mural on the dining room ceiling, which was rediscovered during restoration done in the 1950’s.

A Open Monumentendag flag in front of Rapenburg 29

Source: Enorme drukte op eerste monumentendag

A few bus lines will run on the Breestraat, and emergency vehicles will be exempt from the closing. At the same time the city has asked Leiden’s bars, cafes and restaurants to join in a smoke-free day. About 25 businesses will participate.

The car-free day is part of the European Mobility Week (Week van de Vooruitgang). In the Netherlands about 70% of cities will participate, a record. In Rotterdam a protest/cycling rally has been organized as the city choose not to participate in car-free day this year. Leiden sets a great example for other cities by closing down the entire center of town to car traffic. Other participant cities will not go to such ‘extreme’ measures.

According to the president of Leiden’s asthma awareness organization (Astmafonds), ten percent of Dutch people suffer from asthma, while a further 61% are in favor of smoke-free cafes, restaurants and bars, a concept already adopted in several other European nations.

Several activities have been organized in Leiden in conjunction with car-free day. In the morning there will be a public debate between car-free day organizers and transportation experts. Leiden sport clubs will give demonstrations. Everyone is welcome at the volleyball and soccer tournaments. Childrens’ activities include an educational kiosk from the Astmafonds, a flag-making workshop and a fashion show.

The following restaurants will be totally non-smoking on Sunday:

Annie’s Verjaardag, Branderij, Bruine Boon, Café de Valk, Café ‘t Keizertje, City Hall, Dende, Eazie Salad Wok Smoothies, Einstein, El Gaucho, Grote Beer, Hap Yam, Jantje van Leyden, Koetshuis de Burcht, La Gare, Maoz Vegetarian, Odessa Pastamania, Oudt Leiden, Poort van Leiden, Rhodos, Ristorante Venezia, Scarlatti, Voorafentoe, Viva Italia, Waterlijn

Related link: Gemeente Leiden: Autovrije zondag

Source: Centrum van Leiden zondag autovrij

M. C. Escher (1898–1972) was a Dutch graphic artist known for his often mathematically inspired drawings of impossible constructions and infinite patterns.

In 1940 Escher made five intarsia panels that were placed in the Leiden Town Hall. They are located in rooms not normally open to the public, namely the city mayor’s office and meeting room.

We saw four of the beautiful works: two square works with infinite fish, a clock with birds, and a huge 1940 map (at least two meters across) of the city of Leiden. The map (which even showed the street that our house is on!) contains several planned neighborhoods that were never built. The map shows a canal to the north of the city along a planned industrial area, but the canal was never dug.

Meeting room with Escher clock above door

Close-up of clock above door

Arthur in front of map of Leiden

Detail of map of Leiden

Fish pattern work above door

Besides the coffee and cake, participants may also take part in a free tour of the current Rembrandt exhibit, “Rembrandt the Narrator”. The exhibit is second in a series of three special collections displayed at the museum in this Rembrandt anniversary year.

The celebration at the Lakenhal is just part of the Rembrandt Festival taking place in Leiden this weekend.

Source: Lakenhal viert 400ste verjaardag Rembrandt

The text at the bottom (which is presented in the same way as the “smoking is deadly”-text on a cigaratte pack) reads: “Dog poop is dirty and spreads diseases, so clean it up!”.