Before the Pilgrims ever set foot on the Mayflower, they spent over a decade living in the Netherlands. In this video, one can visit the key sites in Leiden, from the Pieterskerk to the Pilgrim Museum, before heading to Delfshaven, the harbor where the Pilgrims began their journey to America in 1620. Click here for a 9-minute video tour of Leiden posted on December 3, 2025 by Dutch Life Diaries.

(Above, left) A map traces the route that the Separatists took to travel from Gainsborough through Boston to Harwich from which they journeyed to Amsterdam and Leiden. Eventually they traveled to Delfshaven to board the Speedwell to England. Along the way, we visit sites which highlight their daily life in the Netherlands, learn why they went there, and how this Dutch period shaped their story.

The house where John Quincy Adams lived while attending the university in Leiden can be found here as well as the location where Rev. John Robinson organized the printing of Separatist publications.

The American Pilgrim Museum in the house where the Separatists once lived is open for visits, and a copy of the Mayflower Compact hangs in the nearby church in which Robinson is buried.