Discover Leiden: From Pilgrims to Painters, Leiden's Golden Age

Delve into Leiden's Golden Age! We will meet in the heart of Leiden, and a true landmark of the Netherlands, at the base of the central windmill, the last survivor of a city of sails. Our tour takes you through the 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 & through the streets where Rembrandt grew up, sketched his earliest works, and became the painter who would define the Dutch Golden Age.

You will hear how Leiden's canals were built as moats to stop invaders & 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.