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Go there! (too late, we already did)

Posted on July 25th 2009 by Amy in Funny, Illinois, Leiden, Space

I got a big kick out of reading this placard in one of the telescope exhibits at the Adler Planetarium during our visit there last week. Our old home town has several great museums and we visited them all, including the outstanding Boerhaave.

Sign for Leiden museum at Adler Planetarium

Photo tour of Leiden

Posted on September 11th 2008 by Arthur in Leiden

Next week we’ll be moving from Leiden in the Netherlands to the USA. We’ve lived here in Leiden for the last 6 years and really enjoyed this old charming town. Here are some of our pictures of Leiden.

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This is Oude Vest looking at the harbour, about 5 minutes walking from our house. We pass this every time we walk to the center of town. There are a lot of canals like this in Leiden, lined with boats.

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Corpus Museum in Oegstgeest

Posted on July 19th 2008 by Arthur in Leiden, Museums

Today we visited the new Corpus Museum in Oegstgeest, which opened on 14 March 2008. The museum is housed in an impressive 7-storey building with a statue of a large man sitting on it. Corpus features a 1-hour multimedia tour through a giant body, traveling from the stomach, through the intestines, into the heart, lungs, mouth, eyes and eventually the brain.

Corpus Experience langs de A44
Photo by Rob Van Hilten

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Moving on 21 September

Posted on June 27th 2008 by Arthur in Leiden, Personal

Today we have finally set a date for our big move to America. We bought our plane tickets today and will fly from Amsterdam to Chicago with our two cats Arby and Alex on Sunday 21 September. This means we have only 85 days left from today to arrange a lot of stuff, get rid of a lot of stuff, and move all the stuff that’s left. We’re going to have a busy three months!


MySpace Countdown Clocks

 

De Meelfabriek in Leiden

Posted on September 8th 2007 by Arthur in Leiden

Today we had a rare tour of De Meelfabriek (‘The Flour Factory’) in Leiden as part of Open Monumentendag (‘Open Monuments Day’). De Meelfabriek is an old factory near the center of Leiden, not far from our house. You can see it here from a short distance:

Leiden Meelfabriek from the Singel

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Open Monument Day in Leiden

Posted on September 14th 2006 by Amy in Leiden, Museums

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 »

Car-free Sunday in Leiden

Posted on September 13th 2006 by Amy in Leiden, Life in Holland, Nature

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 »

Escher inlaid wood art at Leiden Town Hall

Posted on September 9th 2006 by Arthur in Leiden

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 »

Cake and coffee for Rembrandt’s birthday

Posted on July 12th 2006 by Amy in Leiden, Life in Holland

This Saturday 15 July marks the 400th birthday of Leiden native son and master painter Rembrandt van Rijn. The Leiden city museum, the Lakenhal (cloth guild hall), is inviting all residents of Leiden to celebrate the birthday with coffee and cake. More »

Graphic anti-dog poop posters

Posted on June 22nd 2006 by Arthur in Funny, Leiden, Life in Holland

Dog poop is a big problem in the Netherlands — there are heaps all over the place. You always have to watch your step and walking on any grass in this country is like walking a minefield. Here in Leiden they have started a billboard campaign with posters that are quite explicit: one of them shows a child running after a ball that is about to roll into a fresh pile, and another shows an old lady with a steamy heap in the foreground. More »