Ben Coates says he got the idea to write about Europe’s perhaps greatest river while skating on it one Dutch winter. He overpaid for a pair of skates, headed out to the nearest canal and saw the Netherlands in an entirely different light.

Ben Coates says he got the idea to write about Europe’s perhaps greatest river while skating on it one Dutch winter. He overpaid for a pair of skates, headed out to the nearest canal and saw the Netherlands in an entirely different light.