Netherlands Adventures!: Hortus Botanicus

This is going to be another post in which I play tour guide.  Here's another place to visit in Leiden!

After a day of class last week where I came out not feeling the most confident or happy, I decided to walk over to Leiden University to go and see the Hortus Botanicus botanical gardens.  I'm not here in the Netherlands when the tulips are blooming or even just as the caretakers are just about to dig up the bulbs for the year.  The tulips are D-O-N-E done.  But I don't want to be cheated out of seeing flowers.  So I'm glad that this garden is here.

I had no idea of the actual size of the garden.  I'd seen the front before and I'd seen the reconstructed botanical garden in the front and the towering green house with 3 or 4 levels to suit the different climates and environmental factors the different plants required (for example, the ferns were mainly towards the ground of the green house while cacti were higher up).

But there is a lot more to the gardens than what you can see in front.  It's essentially a sprawling grounds behind, with more greenhouses in back and arrangements of the different plants throughout.  Most of the plants are finishing up for the year, but I did manage to find a few gems outside:

Even though there weren't as many flowers as I was hoping their would be, the Hortus Botanicus was a great place just to walk and clear your head.  Plenty of paths lead through the gardens and they're not all the same.

Hortus Botanicus is a place where you could either spend a few hours or a short visit.  Even if the plants are slowing down for the season, it's still a nice place to visit.  I believe that it's open through October.

Thanks for Reading!  Tot Ziens!

--Jude