Holland Part 5: Welcome to Leiden

Holland Part 1: Falling for Amsterdam
Holland Part 2: Jewish History in Amsterdam
Holland Part 3: Snapshots from The Hague
Holland Part 4: Meet Mondrian

After The Hague, the Holland tourism office took us to Leiden, the birthplace of the De Stijl movement where Theo van Doesburg founded the De Stijl magazine in 1917. Leiden was, and still is, a university town. Only a half an hour south of Amsterdam, it has its own charming canals and waterways.

I spent some time walking around on my own and some time joining M on the official itinerary. I found Leiden to be a very enjoyable city.

This modern building is influenced by the De Stijl movement.

Just like The Hague, Leiden got in on the De Stijl fun. A young girl plays a piano dressed up like a Mondrian painting.

The Holland tourism office took us to a an outdoor art exhibit, all in the De Stijl style, of course.

Around the corner, M and I found the school Rembrandt van Rijn attended as a young boy. Rembrandt is arguably Holland’s most famous artist (and one of M’s favorites).

I love these quaint cobblestone streets.

Afterwards, the tourism office took us on an amazing boat ride through Leiden’s canal system, stopping along the way to watch De Stijl-inspired performances. This included a short skit in Dutch that I did not understand… see on of the actors below.

We also watched a digital, musical light show on the face of building.

And the finale was a love story told through acrobatics (again in Dutch).

On our walk back to our hotel, I snapped a pretty picture of the lights reflecting in the canals.