At the start of Day 2 we ventured into The Hague to see some Renissance art. The Mauritshuis Museum was home to the Dutch people's version of the Mona Lisa, a portrait by Vermeer titled Girl with a Pearl Earring. Aubrie especially enjoyed finding every portrait on her scavendure hunt. Sharral loved the gift store at the end. The rest of the day was spent exploring the town of Leiden. A city with ties back to the original pilgrims of America. The pilgrims (Sepratists no longer the Puritans) settled Leiden before searching for the New World and it's promises of relgious freedom. Some US President (Adams maybe?) lived in the town and we ran into a lot of geneology people wanting to find the exact home of some super distant relative. The museum was cool. We saw a 600 year old dried fish and a peat brick placed behind a wall when the building was first constructed so as to bless the home with food and warmth. There was also an indoor toilet wich was very uncommon throughout most of the world at that time. We learned kids used to use old bones as iceskates and everyone sat sitting up in their beds because they thought it was better for their circulation. Bathing was done seldom because they thought most disease came from the water. They mostly drank beer (even the kids) because the fermentation helped cleans the water. The currator thought they were innebrated a lot. The girls like to hold the little doll that was replicated like the baby dolls at that time (1600's if I'm remembering right). We also hiked up to Leiden city fortress for a great view of the city.
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