Leiden

The Hortus botanicus, the Rapenburg and the Burcht before dusk

Walk from Leiden Centraal past the windmill De Valk, which you can climb for a view over the roofs, to the Hortus botanicus when it opens, with its reconstructed 16th-century garden of Clusius. Eat lunch in the Pieterswijk, walk the Rapenburg canal, and climb the Burcht mound before dusk.

Head for the Hortus botanicus when it opens, while the glasshouses and the reconstructed 16th-century garden of Clusius, the botanist who brought the tulip to Holland, are still quiet. Step out onto the Rapenburg, the city's grandest canal, and walk past the Academy Building, where students still sit their doctoral defences. Cross the water to the National Museum of Antiquities for the Temple of Taffeh, a small Nubian temple rebuilt indoors, and the Egyptian mummies upstairs.

Eat lunch in the Pieterswijk, the old quarter east of the Breestraat, and look into the Pieterskerk for its exhibition on the Pilgrims who lived here before sailing for America. Walk on to the Burcht and climb its earth mound for the view, then choose between De Lakenhal for early Rembrandt or Naturalis if you have children with you. Use the wall-poem map to tie the walk together; poems by Shakespeare, Basho and dozens of others appear on gables along the way. Finish at a canal-side terrace on the Nieuwe Rijn as the students come out, or take an early evening boat round the canals in summer.

Hutspot and herring on 3 October, and Leiden's cumin cheese

Leiden's most local food is tied to its siege. On 3 October, the anniversary of the relief in 1574, the town eats herring with white bread and hutspot, a mash of potato, carrot and onion. The local cheese is Leidse kaas, firm and studded with cumin, and the Pieterswijk has the densest choice of restaurants.

On 3 October, the anniversary of the relief in 1574, the whole town eats haring en wittebrood, herring with white bread, said to be what the relief ships handed out, and hutspot, a mash of potato, carrot and onion, often served with slow-cooked beef. The story goes that the Spanish left a pot of it behind when they fled. Restaurants put both on the menu that week, and charity stalls sell them in the streets.

The local cheese is Leidse kaas, a firm, low-fat cheese studded with cumin seeds and stamped with the city's crossed keys. Buy it at the big outdoor market, which fills the Nieuwe Rijn and the Vismarkt on Wednesdays and Saturdays with cheese, fish, flowers and fresh stroopwafels.

For dinner, the Pieterswijk, the old lanes east of the Breestraat, has the densest cluster of small restaurants, and the Burgsteeg leading up to the Burcht has Italian trattorias and cafes. With so many students, cheap meals are easy: Greek taverns on the Nieuwe Rijn, wok bars on the Breestraat and student cafes round the Steenstraat near the station. Drinking starts on the canal-side terraces of the Nieuwe Rijn and the Oude Rijn, and in summer some cafes moor terrace boats on the water.

Bulb fields to Lisse by bike and the Katwijk sluices

Leiden is the nearest city to Keukenhof in Lisse, and the land between them is the heart of the Dutch bulb country, where fields run in bands of colour from late March to mid-May. Rent a bike at the station to ride through them, and later in the year cycle west to the beach at Katwijk.

In season, buses run to Keukenhof from the square outside Leiden Centraal, but queues build quickly, so go early on a weekday.

Many visitors prefer to rent a bike at the station and ride through the fields under their own steam. The roads north towards Sassenheim and Lisse are flat and lined with farms in full colour in April, and you can stop wherever you like, outside the park as well as in it. Bring a layer, as the wind across the polders is strong, and respect the farm edges; walking into the fields for photos damages the crop.

Later in the year, the same bikes take you west to the beach at Katwijk, where the Oude Rijn finally meets the North Sea through a set of old sluice gates, or north-east to the Kagerplassen, a cluster of lakes where locals sail and swim in summer. Noordwijk, a little further up the coast, has a long beach and the nearest youth hostel.