Leiden

A few pictures from Leiden, none of which are of great intrinsic merit. Here’s the hotel I’m staying at. It was built in 1638:

I thought I should at least look at one of the old churches in town while I was here, so I strolled over to the Pieterskerk. Unfortunately, scaffolding around old churches is no more aesthetically pleasing than scaffolding around any other building:

Some things have improved in the world. I, despite being Mennonite, now get to spend a few days in Leiden talking about obscure philosophers thanks in part to Dutch money. But part of the reason that I didn’t grow up in the Netherlands is that several centuries ago, the state wasn’t as welcoming to Mennonites. One of the squares in which they were executed is only a couple of blocks from where I am staying. The Gravensteen square:

As you presumably do not recall from the post I had a while back about my academic parentage, Justus Lipsius is my academic  great(x13) grandparent. He taught at Leiden for a while. Some of our conference sessions are in the Lipsius building:

Sydney