Everybody needws a day off

Flowers, anyone?

If not flowers, why not some olives?

Bike with seating for 4 kids. Things we've seen hauled by bike so far: office chair, 3 kids by one mom, crutches, 2 kids and one kid's bike in Mom's basket bike, large dogs in a basket cart like this. Seems that anything that can fit, can be hauled. We've seen basket carts like this full and a kid also sitting in a child's seat behind the adult who is pedaling the bike.

The Pilgrims initially came to Leiden from England, fleeing the Church of England. They intended to sail directly from Leiden to America but found their ship too small and went instead back to England, where they purchased another ship and left England for America. The house where one of the Pilgrims lived is still in original shape (built in 1370 but, of course, inhabited much later by the Pilgrim) and is the oldest house and only unrestored house in Leiden. We had a tour by a professor at the university who is the world's authority on Pilgrims. This house had one and a half rooms, each being about 10x8 feet and accommodated one family, typically two adults and 7 or 8 children. Talk about overcrowding! What you see in the photo is a table spread with implements dating back to that period. The actual tables used in the house were much smaller and folded back against the wall to allow more floor space.

As I write this I'm in the lounge watching the USA playing Algeria in the soccer World Cup. We have a day off from bicycling and are anchored in the former moat surrounding the old city of Leiden. It's market day in town, and there's everything for sale from fresh and pickled herring to clothing, and from fresh fruit and veggies to bike tires and bike locks. If they didn't weigh so much we'd buy a couple of Dutch bike locks. They're really handy -- two interlocking metal half circles that fit together over the frame and rear tire to lock the tire and the frame. Small, but heavy and very secure. Every bike has one, and it's easy and safe to lock your bike. If you REALLY want your bike to be secure, you can also add a chain or a u-bolt like we have in the USA. I guess that's the equivalent of having your car both locked and alarmed, although I haven't seen (or heard) any actual bike alarms. We are told that the average Dutchman owns 1.5 bikes. We've seen everyone from grandmas to toddlers riding. You dare not step into the red-paved areas on the road for fear of being run down by not one but several bikers. Yet with all these bikes around you rarely hear a bike bell. People have simply accommodated to bike and bike/car traffic and work things out with rarely a hitch. And nobody wears helmets except for foreigners on bike tours (us) or little kids learning how to ride bike.