The next morning Patrick had arranged for a group tour of the Muiderslot. A picture-perfect 13^th-century castle near Almere, the Muiderslot is complete with beautiful gardens, a dungeon, and a great armor collection. Kids of all ages can even try their hand at jousting or dress up in medieval costumes.

Built by Count Floris V in 1285, the castle later became his prison when he was captured by his nobles while out falcon hunting one day. Floris was soon murdered--in revenge for the seduction of a noblewoman, or perhaps because he ordered the execution of another noble on false charges. The history books aren't quite sure. Whatever his sin, the count's less-objectionable past time lives on at the castle in daily demonstrations of falcons and other raptors.

Three centuries after the untimely demise of Count Floris, poet and historian P.C. Hooft took up residence in the Muiderslot. The castle's most famous resident, he summered there for four decades, gathering the leading men and ladies of literature and science around him, a group that became known as the Muiderkring. Today, visitors can see the room where the "Dutch Shakespeare" worked.

Anyone in our group still daydreaming about medieval times was definitely jerked back to the modern age as soon as we returned to the hotel. There, we found the parking lot turned into a car show. Nothing formal--just hotel guests and many of the locals who