A cultural city with its feet in the water... Just across the border dominates the flat polder landscapes with its typical windmills. The countless dikes of this ‘low country’ have to protect the land against floods from the sea and rivers. Our first stop will be Volendam, where we enjoy an introduction of cheese and wooden shoes. On the dike of Volendam are still many inhabitants wearing the traditional clothing. We will have lunch in this charming fishing village on the Yssellake, one of the lowest points of this densely populated country. After be sated with food, we move to the capital, strangly enough not the seat of the national government, which is situated in Den Hague. This is just one of the pecularities of the Dutch. They eat for instance Dutch rusk with aniseed confits at the birth of a newborn baby.. (We were thinking more of a bottle of champagne) We enjoy a boattrip on the canals of the 17th century, where we will admire the beautiful houseboats and patrician houses all built like a spider’s web in the old town. The red light district ‘walletjes’ brings us from the Dam square to the New Church, where Prince Alexander married with Maxima from Argentina. You can visit the house of Anne Frank or Madame Tussaud’s, the museum Van Gogh where you will find the biggest collection of this artist. Not to forget as well the miller’s son of Leiden, Rembrandt, painter of the Nightwatch. This Dutch master could reflect in a perfect way darkness and brightness, but had unfortunately bad luck in his private life. (he lost many children and wives.) After learning so much, we leave this metropolis, capital of the ‘kaaskoppen’ and drive back to the “low country”.