Following our record-breaking heat in July and the record rainfall of August we are now experiencing the warmest September in 300 years, according to the Dutch weather agency (KNMI). More »

I didn’t realize this, but many food products like Pop-Tarts, M&M’s, Cupcakes, Snicker bars, etc. have beef or pork gelatin in them. More »

Last Saturday was Open Monumentendag, or Open Monument Day, in the Netherlands. Leiden goes a step further and celebrates Openmonumentendagen, or Openmonumentenweekend, opening up over 30 monuments, museums and historical buildings for the entire weekend. Each year the tourist bureau in Leiden also publishes a guide for visitors, with suggested walking or cycling routes. More »

This Sunday, 17 September, the center of Leiden will be closed to all car traffic. The city is closing the streets for an autovrije dag, or car-free day. Each year across Europe and the rest of the world such car-free days are organized; this year marks the first time Leiden will be closed to car traffic since the 1970’s. More »

A new bird species has been discovered in a remote forest in northeastern India, conservationists announced today. The strikingly multi-colored bird has been named Bugun Liocichla and it is the first new bird species discovered in India in more than half a century. More »

Today was Open Monumentendag in the Netherlands, which means that many monuments, otherwise closed to the public, are open for free exploration. We had a walk around our town Leiden today and came across some really nice 1940’s Escher intarsia (a form of wood inlaying) works at the city’s Town Hall. More »

We were in Madrid last weekend and saw the Puerta de Europa (‘Gateway to Europe’) towers, the world’s first leaning high-rise buildings. They were built in 1996 and designed by the American architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee. Each building is 115 m tall, or 26 stories, with an inclination of 15º, or more than twice that of the ‘leaning’ (pfft) tower of Pisa. More »

The average supermarket in the Netherlands is the smallest in Europe, and the selection of food and drink here at grocery stores is also very limited compared to stores in Germany, France, UK, USA and even Belgium. Here is a list of several food products that I like to bring back when shopping abroad — stuff that they really should sell here in Holland. More »

What do Madrid, Turin, Leiden and New York have in common? All four cities have a complete Egyptian temple! Back in 1960 when the Great Dam of Aswan threatened to cover Lower Nubia and all its ancient Egyptian temples under Lake Nasser, UNESCO made an international call to save the many historical sites, among which the massive rock temples of Abu Simbel, that were between 1964 and 1968 moved 200 meters away from the river. As a thank you present, the Egyptian state gave away four of the Nubian temples. More »