Even though, i am a Rotterdammer at heart, my favorite city in NL is Leiden. i spent a lot of time there. Here is where i found a old bengali to english dictionary and a old cafe that looked similar to Bengali chayer dokan one cold winter morning. I loved the traditional vibe Leiden have. This is the city in which i signed my name in an old Sweat room as a Graduate. Skethched the small home i belonged to.
I had to visit the international office very often and everytime i went there, i would stop by in Hortus Botanicus. I loved this place. I love nature since i was a child and In NL they nurture the nature. And as a Leiden university student, entry to this garden was free for me. It gave me the opportunity to spend the whole day by just showing my student card. I would sometimes grab my young son, my only child at that time and visited Leiden to go vsit this amazing place. I also invited a friend who just came to join her expat husband from Bangladesh as a welcome gift. it was a good place to hang out with people also as it has an amazing cafe with organic, freshly made food.
I also found exotic plants like murraya paniculata, which is Kamini in Bengali as well as saffron bulbs. One morning i woke up with a heavenely franrance and found that the saffron flower bloomed. That too twice from one bulb.
Along with that the garden is very beautiful with an orangery, indoor plants and this is also the first place where i saw Bashorlata for the first time. there is also an amazing pond full of fishes. My son liked to sit in the bench and watch them for hours. Unfortunately, when i made this video renovation work was going on in a nearby building.
This could also be a place to organize events, if someone likes a different touch from the commercial community centres to celebrate their memorable days. At least i told people if my son marries someday i would celebrate the wedding reception her in Hortus, where me and my kid made a lot of memories together. Off course the brides’ opinion will matter too.
I hope my article would help travellers to Hortus, there is one in Amsterdam as well.
More information could be found in the website https://hortusleiden.nl/.
Thank you 🙂