Leiden and Haarlem are both short train trips from Amsterdam.
Leiden is famous for cheese and the university. In earlier years, it was a place of cloth manufacture. In the 1500s it was under Spanish rule until the dykes were breached and the town flooded.
The university was built there as a reward for resistance against the Spaniards.
It is also the place where pilgrims set out for the departed for what is now the USA.
It is a beautiful place with a well preserved old town on the banks of the Old Rhine river. We spent a few hours exploring and drinking coffee by the river.
Really beautiful!
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