Holland part 2- Leiden!

Me and Gloria hanging by the canal after the market!

So this is going to be a post with a slew of iPhone pictures. Sorry, I know they are really crappy, but like I said my camera was low on battery so I had to conserve! Anyway, I documented some adventures with my trusty iPhone (seriously what did I do without it?!). Most of these photos will be food and that's because Gloria and I ate like Kings! Ok, well, at least we were really loving our choice in foods. So here we go! 

 Part of city center, sadly this photo just doesn't do any justice to how beautiful it is.

The most amazing market ever! They had blocks and blocks of market stalls that were filled with beautiful fresh fruit, cheese, meats, flowers, some sold fabrics and other random nicknacks. Let's just get real, you know where I was, THE CHEESE STALL! 

 Part of our loot! Fresh blackberries (which were unbelievable), raspberries, 1 nectarine, freshly baked bread, and cheese! 

 My goodies!

My favorite combo was to take a piece of cheese, bread and any fruit and make it into a mini sandwich. I could eat it all day, everyday!

 Another canal, imagine that?

 Just one of the statues in the park, I have no clue who he is. Sorry!

Part of the school of Law at Leiden. This was the view from the park where Gloria and I decided to have a picnic one day. I'm pretty certain that we never ate lunch indoors while I was there. It was nice to be out and about and have a packed picnic lunch that included the same things every time. 

 Again, this was my lunch. So delicious. Just some bread, salami, cheese and fruit. 

 The goods!

I can't remember the name of these berries, Julia help me out! But they are my favorite, sweet but also really tart. 

As we were finishing our picnic it started to rain and a homeless man started talking to us about how he was kicked out of Richmond! Isn't it weird that no matter where you try to escape, there is always someone or something to remind you of home? Anyway, we got away from him and Gloria took me on a walk around Leiden and gave me a history lesson.

 This was the main entrance into Leiden back in the day. You can see at the top the 2 keys.

Gloria at the main entrance! Isn't she a beaut! 

Just a cute little windmill

Gloria told me why this monument was significant, but honestly I don't remember why. Mostly because Glo had just taken me to this awesome little bakery and I was too busy eating this:

Are you noticing a trend here? I know, I love food too much and I'm just not ashamed of it!

 Then we went to see the house where Rembrandt was born and the neighborhood where he lived

 It's kind of weird because now students live there. I'm sure it's not the same building, but you know. 

The status in the courtyard garden across from Rembrandt's house.

 On my last night in town, Gloria and I decided we needed to hit the pannekoeken huis (pancake house). The dutch are famous for their overwhelming pancakes that are usually classified into salty/savory and sweet. So the name of the game is, you get like bacon, eggs, mushrooms and whatever baked INTO the pancake. The pancake itself is thin like a crepe or a swedish pancake. So we decided to get a savory and a sweet and split the two. OMG! I loved the savory, I'm pretty sure we got bacon, mushrooms, onion and tomato? Then our sweet was bananas with powdered sugar. As you can see in the photo below, they were huge. I'm talking like medium, almost a large pizza size. It was great! 



I leave you with a photo of a pannekoeken in all it's glory!