Leiden Secret Stories: The Walking Companion

Every city keeps two histories. One is printed on postcards. The other is written in brass stones you step over, in plaques ten centimetres too high to notice, in alleys named after people nobody remembers. Leiden Secret Stories: The Walking Companion is a self-guided walk through the second Leiden - the city of the people history forgot to make famous. Over 31 stops on one loop, you'll meet a carpenter's son who was barred from university and won a Nobel Prize anyway, a scholar destroyed by a single pamphlet, a woman who saved the city with a promise, another who poisoned half a neighbourhood - and the Pilgrims who lived here twelve years before the Mayflower. Inside: - 31 stops in walking order, each with its story, a photograph and a custom-drawn map- Main route ≈ 3.5 km (about 2 hours); a full day with all secret detours ≈ 8 km- Walking directions and addresses for every stop- Natural lunch pause at the Koornbrug market Written as the companion to the guided walking tour Leiden Secret Stories. Perfect for visitors who want more than the postcard Leiden, for Americans tracing the Pilgrims - and for locals who think they already know their city.