Leiden is a university town built on canals, and it is one of the most agreeable small cities in the Netherlands. The Old Rhine, split into several branches, runs through the centre, and the old merchant houses, narrow bridges and windmills give it a charm that is lived in rather than preserved. The university, founded in 1575 as a reward for the city's resistance to the Spanish siege the year before, is the oldest in the country, and its students keep the streets busy on bicycles. Rembrandt was born here in 1606, and the Pilgrim Fathers lived here for years before sailing to America. About 120,000 people live in the city, so fuel, food and everything else are easy to find.
The Siege of Leiden in 1574 is the city's founding story. Inhabitants starved while Spanish troops surrounded the walls, and the Dutch broke the dikes to flood the countryside and bring relief ships. The day of liberation, 3 October, is still celebrated with herring and white bread, and with hutspot, a stew of potatoes, carrots and onions that the Spanish are said to have left behind in their camp. The Hortus Botanicus, one of the oldest botanical gardens in Europe, holds some of the first tulips grown in the Netherlands, which links the city to the flower region.
As a start for the Flower Route, Leiden is well placed, because the bulb fields lie just to the north, around Lisse and Keukenhof. The riding is flat, calm and a matter of small roads between dikes, canals and fields, where rows of tulips, daffodils and hyacinths stretch to the horizon in stripes of colour. Peak season is April, and especially mid-April, when the roads are busy with tourists, cyclists and slow tractors, so be patient. Wind is frequent, and the surface is usually good, though bikes and mopeds have priority in many places.
Do not ride across the fields, and do not pick the flowers, which are commercial crops. Instead stop at the roadside, and enjoy the smell, which is sweet when the hyacinths are out. Traffic in the city is heavy on weekdays, so an early start helps. Order a plate of herring, or a slice of apple pie, and sit by the canal for a while before setting off.