July 16 - Haarlem (Day trip to Lieden)

 July 16 - Haarlem (Day trip to Lieden)

An easy train journey through some beautiful countryside took us to Lieden this morning.  We arrived in the middle of what was market day and, after a bit of a wander around all the food stalls, we settled down for brekky in the sun, lovely!

This is yet another picturesque Dutch town that takes advantage of its canals, with dozens of bars, restaurants, and coffee shops all lined up along the waterside, it’s just fantastic!

After much more meandering around town we ended up at the Lakenhal Museum.  Housed in a beautiful old building that was previously a wool cloth exchange, this museum is all about art, artists, and history, all from a Lieden perspective. One of the more well known sons of the city was Rembrandt who was born here, and the museum has a number of his works alongside many other ‘masters’ of his era.  There’s also a few rooms of local ‘glassware’ type art as well which we both liked. 

Further wandering around the streets and canals we found ourselves at the De Velk windmill and museum. This was the first time either of us had been inside one of these and it was pretty interesting, along with some very ‘interesting’ stairs between floors!. The museum itself was housed in the actual dwellings of the building with its original furniture and old artwork and delftware of the windmill itself. 



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