Delftware, also called Royal Delft or Delftblue, denotes blue and white pottery made in the Dutch city Delft. The main period of this tin-glaze pottery was 1640 - 1740. Delftware ranged from simple household items to fancy artwork. Delft potters also made tiles in vast numbers ( around eight hundred million in 200 years.)

The story of the Zaan region begins around 1600 with windmills. There used to be over a thousand industrial mills. Initially they used the wind to keep their feet dry, but later on they used too for sawing wood, pressing oil, milling cocoa beans or making paper.

The collection of the Mauritshuis is the property of the Dutch state. The oldest part of the collection consists of the paintings owned in the 18th century by stadholder Prince Willem V of Orange-Nassau (1748 - 1806)

The Netherlands is locked in a permanent struggle for survival. Large areas lie below sea level. Half of the Netherlands would be flooded if it were not for the lines of defenses that has been built over the centuries and the equipment to pump ground water and river water out of the lowlying polders. After the Nord Sea flood of 1953, a commission was installated which had to come up with a plan to research the causes and seek measures to prevent such disasters in future.

The cheese market has taken place on the Waagplein in Alkmaar since 1593. Teams of official guild cheese-porters carry the farmers' cheese on stretchers. Buyers then sample the cheese and negotiate a price, using a ritual system called "handjeklap", in which buyers and sellers clap each others'hands and shout prices. Once a price is agreed, the porters carry the cheese to the weighing house (Waag).