Find high culture in this low country
The Dutch labored for years, painstakingly reclaiming acre after acre of land from the North Sea. After all that hard work, you’d better believe they make the most of it. Holland’s countryside is remarkably picturesque, with gleaming green pastures stretching to the horizon interrupted only by the slowly turning arms of stately windmills. Its cities offer innumerable pleasures, many of them offbeat. Tour down Amsterdam’s picture-perfect streets, where colorful homes teeter at improbable angles, their winsome asymmetry reflected on the shimmering surface of the canals, which itself supplies symmetry. Gloriously expanses of flat land and cycle-conscious communities make long lazy picnics in outlying parks a great Dutch treat. The fantastic Van Gogh Museum, a must-see, holds enough cultural capital for the entire country. Holland devotes some of its precious terrain to oddities like the National Spectacle Museum and multiple Museums of Sex, all of which are considerably more entertaining after a stop at any of the nation’s notoriously hazy coffeehouses. Salute the end of a fine Dutch day with a herring sandwich and a locally brewed Heineken as you watch the houseboats float by. Beautiful, quirky Holland will win you over--you'll dream of canals for weeks.
