One of the outstanding attractions in Leiden is the Hortus Botanicus. It is Hollands oldest, founded in 1590 so it has one of my favourite things, old trees.
They also have different exhibits and this summer it is ancient plants.
The gardens are not huge but well thought out with a map at the entrance so you don't get lost but since you can see the border from nearly everywhere.....
Nina posing with the founder, Clusius I think, or something similar.
The greenhouses have a great collection of carnivorous plants. These are in the rafters three storeys up.
I tried to dissuade Nina from touching them by telling her that they will snap her fingers off but she needed to verify.
Next floor down is a cactus collection. This was a particularly weird looking one.
Lots of info about fossilised ferns with the actual fossils, some hundreds of millions of years old.
Flowers everywhere.
Not sure what this is. An artwork or fossils?
These water plants were huge! They were in the prehistoric section.
My new favourite tree in Leiden.
More flowers. No explanatory signs so they must be purely decorative.
And another amazing tree. It's branches formed a natural tipi.
You may notice that I uploaded more pictures than usual. This is to compensate for the lack of chess content :-)
We did play 13 interesting moves but when my 200 point higher rated grandmaster opponent offered me a draw in a more or less equal position I whimped out. I blame our horticultural excursion.
( excuse number 345 )
So now I have black against a lower rated opponent. If I win then the draw was a brilliant stratagem, if not it was a severe error in judgement. Stay tuned :D
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