Leiden: Where Rembrandt, Pilgrims and the First Dutch Tulips Share the Same City

Leiden: Where Rembrandt, Pilgrims and the First Dutch Tulips Share the Same City A city of canals, scholars and centuries of stories, Leiden is one of the most richly layered places you can explore in the Netherlands A canal in the heart of Leiden. Photo: W. Bulach via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) An introduction to Leiden Standing at the confluence of the Old Rhine and the New Rhine, Leiden has been doing remarkable things for a very long time. It is a city that gave Rembrandt van Rijn to the world, sheltered the Pilgrim Fathers before they sailed for America, introduced the tulip to the Netherlands, and founded the country’s oldest university on the back of a legendary Spanish siege. For a place with fewer than 125,000 inhabitants, its contribution to history is almost absurdly…