To see Holland through the eyes of a smart person is worth a lot. Sergei Stern, a writer and translator who has lived in Sweden for many years, is ironic in every line of this book and sincerely in love with the country he travels. A tiny nation, placed by God in extremely unfavorable conditions of survival, for many centuries not only lives in one of the most prosperous countries in the world, but also serves as a model of tolerance, diligence and the absence of national arrogance, which some others so sin (for no reason) countries. In addition, the Dutch are quite strange people: they live below sea level, smoke marijuana, do not hang curtains on the windows and joyfully celebrate the Queen's birthday. And yet, they are that rare people who still love the Russians and our energetic Tsar Peter ...