De Burch

The last thing I saw in Leiden was De Burch.  The mound is at least a thousand years old and the castle, in more or less similar form, has been around for 800 years or so.  It is the oldest thing in Leiden.  You enter the complex around De Burch through this little arch-way.  When I took this picture I was standing more or less near the Hooglandse Kerk.  You can probably see that it is wet but, actually, it was pouring rain from about two minutes before I took this picture until I got on the train.  The morning had started out perfectly--there were thunderstorms and lots of rain but only when I was inside museums.  In the afternoon, though, I ended up getting pretty wet.  In all of the pictures here, I was covering my camera with my hand to protect it and then hiding it under my sweater in between, trying, fairly ineffectually, to keep it dry.  Apparently it is a sturdy camera, though, and it hasn't broken yet.

You may notice the device over the arch is the lion and the crossed red keys on a white ground.  That is the symbol of Leiden.

The complex around De Burch is made up of some municipal buildings and a cafe.  To get to the actual castle, you go up through these gates.  The devices on this gate represent, I believe, the different noblemen who were allied and who would have taken refuge in this tour if the need arose.

The sign below is right next to the gate:

The small English section has this:

The sign has also has this label on it.  I assume that these things are all forbidden but I am not sure that the sign makes that very clear, especially as there is a bar just across from the sign.

This is the view into De Burch by the front door.

And this is the view out to the city from inside De Burch.

I was going to stick my head into one of the slits for firing arrows to get a picture of the city through that but just as I was ducking my head through, I saw this inside of it, and then I stayed far, far away from the corners.

There were interesting little plaques up all around
the walls with information about the city and
about De Burch.

"De sleutels van de stad" means "The Keys
to the City" according to this plaque, the Leiden
device of crossed keys are a reference to the St.
Pieterskerk and Peter's holding of the keys
of the kingdom.

This is a view of the Burch from the inside top ramparts.  Since it was raining everything was very slick and while parts of the outside wall were about head height, there are places that are about knee height (I guess so that it would be easier to pout boiling oil on people, should the need arise) and I was pretty sure I was going to slip and fall out of one of those holes and die.

This is the main door to De Burch.  The coats of
arms are for the dukes who worked together for this.

This is a view down into the square from
the front door of De Burch.  If you notice
little guy in the blue shirt, just to the left
of the gate, he vomited all over the road
just after I took this picture.  Since it was
just about 5:30, it seemed a little early to
be quite that drunk, even on a Saturday
but, when he had finished, he trotted right
back into the bar (the building on the left
of the photo) apparently ready to keep on
having a good time.

The best thing about De Burch was that you could take pictures of the city skyline.  Leiden has very, very narrow streets and it was hard to get any pictures of the taller buildings and, since the Netherlands are really flat, there aren't that many ways to get big pictures like this.

Hooglandse Kerk, Leiden

The Leiden Stadhuis 

Leiden

Leiden