Love This City...

Considering how many times we’ve walked or run through Leiden, it’s incredible that there’s still always new places to explore...

...and new spots to photograph.

Wandering Around Leiden...

To continue on the Leiden roll, I’ll skip ahead to the following weekend when Jimmy, Kati and I took a long walk around the city.

As usual, we saw windmills...

...flowers and canals.

We also saw this funny sculpture...

...and this unusual poster.

It was especially nice seeing this large family of Egyptian Geese.

Images of Leiden...

I love capturing reflections, and that day I caught this cool shot of windows across the canal from where we were viewing the parade.

This boy was standing next to us with a very unusual message on his shirt: Enjoy Life Now. Win or Learn. Does this mean that you can’t win and learn?

 I failed to get a group shot, but I did get one of this happy boy.

 I also grabbed a few night shots on the way back to the train station.

More Parade Boats...

This boat was especially colorful with lots of unicorns and a theme of We Are Unique.

Clearly this was a very unique boat...

...as was this.

The folks on the Queen Live Aid boat looked like they were having a lot of fun.

Rembrandt, Leiden’s favorite son, was honored..

...as was the Grim Reaper...

...and Santa Claus.

Leiden Boat Parade...

On the last Friday in June, Sally, John and Andrew as well as Patti and Steve joined us for the Leiden Boat Parade.

As always, it was fun to see the themes, decorations and costumes on the boats, such as Will You Marry Me?...

...Cubano...

...disco...

...and The Regulars, which included a painter...

...a DJ and an outhouse.

The Mint...

The Kremnica Mint is the oldest still-working mint in the world, originally dating back to 1328. 

We couldn’t enter the modern section of the mint, where Slovak euros as well as coins for other countries are manufactured, but could merely sneak a peek through the windows.

The most fascinating portion of the tour was when we headed up the steep staircase...

...to the coin striking plant, which was like traveling back in time.

The steam-driven machines still work as demonstrated by the tour guide who punched out a tourist coin for each of us.

It was too bad that Jimmy couldn’t have come along as he really loves to visit factories. The following day, there was a yoga class arranged for the wives, but I was the only one to show up. The instructor didn’t speak English, so another lady came along to translate and take the class with me. I felt bad for them that the other ladies had flaked, but it was fun and they didn’t seem to mind. The following day we drove back to Vienna and flew home.

Kremnica...

After checking into the conference hotel, I went on a tour arranged for spouses to the town of Kremnica. home to around 5,500 people.

There was a small group of just four of us plus the local tour guide.

The city center was picturesque...

...with a monumental Baroque plague column on the main square.

We took a short walk around and then stopped for a coffee while waiting for our appointed time to tour the mint.