Leiden, Part 2

Well the conference kept us pretty busy, with all day sessions and meetings, and often dinner engagements in the evenings. But making those connections is part of the reason of being there, so it's not a complaint. What it does mean is a general inability to wander and see where you are. So we stayed extra in Leiden specifically to be tourists. (Shannon actually stayed several days and then toured more of the Netherlands, whereas I left a little early for some unanticipated meetings in Amsterdam, then holidays in Amsterdam and Belgium.)

So on our free day, we went to the Hortus Botanicus, the Botanic Garden. This was high on both of our lists, both of us being very engaged in environmental issues. It's the oldest botanic garden in the Netherlands, and one of the oldest in the world. It's really quite lovely, with some wonderful plants, as you can see here.



A wonderful collection of pitcher plants. Yes, they are carnivorous.


Some lovely lavender, complete with bees. I'm just fascinated by pollinators, and the potential impact their recent decline may have on all sorts of plants, including a great many fruits and vegetables.

The garden also has a wonderful exhibit right now of amazing sculptures by a Zimbabwe artist named Dominic Benhura. His pieces are whimsical, beautiful, and just delightful. Here are a few shots. I took many more of the sculptures than I did of the plants--something new for me!






Surprise--fishes!

We then visited the Antiquities Museum, which was wonderful in some ways, very off-putting in others. Now I did some concentrated coursework in Near Eastern Studies, and am familiar with mummies. But something about this exhibit caught me. There was also a wonderful little exhibit on Europe, complete with Merovingian swords and other rare items, but the mass grave was unsettling. Maybe it's my work at the museum, but I could have devised a number of different ways to tell that story, and make the same impact, without relocating and then displaying all those human remains.

By that point we needed food, and a shopping trip helped too. We met up with friends for dinner, and then spent time at a jazz club. Overall, it was a great day. Unfortunately for me, I had to pack after that, and be up early, so a good sleep it wasn't. Tradeoffs! I was off to Amsterdam the next morning for meetings at the Troppenmuseum, and would just stay in the city. So I missed some things in Leiden, but hope I'll get the chance to go back someday.