Discover the "Amsterdam of the South" on a peaceful walking tour of Key City. We’ll explore historic sites, hidden courtyards, and iconic bridges that have inspired travelers for centuries. Join us to uncover the soul of this beautiful city!
We will meet in the heart of Leiden, and a true landmark of the Netherlands, at the base of the central windmill. Our tour takes you through centrum, the shopping and market district, through the oldest University in the Netherlands, and through the quiet streets and hidden courtyards where the pilgrims planned their trip to the new world, after fleeing England.
In the 1600s, a single tulip bulb sold for the price of a canal house. The flower that started the famous tulip mania? It was planted right here in Leiden.
This walking tour follows a trail that takes you to that spot at the Hortus Botanicus and through the streets where Rembrandt grew up, sketched his earliest works, and became the painter who would define the Dutch Golden Age.
Along the way, you will hear how Leiden's canals were built as moats to stop invaders and how those Invaders impacted the unique Leiden accent you'll still hear today. You'll understand why poems cover the city walls instead of graffiti, and how a group of English refugees, called the pilgrims, sheltered here before sailing, with nine future US Presidents among their descendants.
