Dwars door de Lage Landen Episode Rating Graph

In the last episode, Arnout crosses the Westhoek where there was hard fighting during the First World War. Not only are the cemeteries a reminder of that dark period, but the traces of the front line are still clearly visible on the De Palingbeek golf course. In the last café on the route, Arnout and his friends drink a Picon and celebrate their friendship. After 1,000 long kilometers, the end point of their journey through the Low Countries is finally in sight: the North Sea coast of De Panne.

When Arnout leaves Friesland behind him and enters Drenthe, he hears a lion roaring in the forest. After some searching, Arnout and his friends end up in an animal shelter where traumatized animals from all over the world find a new home. In Wilhelminaoord, in the last century, no animals, but poor families and vagabonds were sheltered in the Colony of Benevolence. The people here could literally work their way out of poverty by working the land. Arnout speaks with the very last wanderer of Wilhelminaoord, who proves to be difficult to tame....

Arnout leaves the Netherlands behind and crosses the border with Belgium at the Kalmthoutse Heide. At the military airport of Brasschaat he looks for the owner of an old army plane that turns out to have a special history. In the St. Paul's Church, in the middle of the red light district of Antwerp, Arnout stares at the beautiful medieval paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck and Jordaens. These masterpieces were saved by the neighborhood's prostitutes and students in 1969 when the church was in danger of burning down...

Arnout crosses the Demer Valley and arrives in the Flemish Ardennes: the setting of the Flemish cycling classics. In Geraardsbergen, Arnout and his friends exchange their walking shoes for a racing bike to climb the legendary Muur, just like countless cyclists have done before them. They continue along the language border to Amougies. This small, rural village is known as the Woodstock of the Low Countries after it was overrun by 70,000 hippies in 1969.

Arnout crosses De Biesbosch National Park and looks for beavers. But they are not so easy to film. Sound man Ruben leaves a camera in the park and hopes to have better luck during the night. In Willemstad, Arnout speaks with the very last witnesses of the Rhenus 127 disaster. That was a ship full of Belgian prisoners of war that struck a mine near the city during the Second World War...

Arnout, Philippe and Ruben cross the sandy Kempen. At the Kleine Nete they pass a crab catching station. Arnout then visits some old friends in Geel: Rob and Eddy. Fifteen years ago he made a documentary about family nursing in Geel, in which the pair played a leading role. In the abbey of Tongerlo, Arnout comes face to face with Da Vinci's Last Supper, and in Westerlo he meets Prince Simon de Merode, who invites him to his castle. The prince's ancestors appear to have played an important role in the creation of Belgium.

Arnout, Ruben and Philippe arrive in the Achterhoek. In Gaanderen they are welcomed by a musician who sings a song in Low Saxon. In Laren they have coffee with a baroness who spent her childhood at Verwolde Castle. On the Sallandse Heuvelrug, Arnout meets Suzanne, a shepherdess who exchanged her ten-storey flat in the Bijlmer for a life close to nature. Things are less quiet in Hellendoorn, where the three end up on an extremely hard motocross.

Arnout Hauben and his friends arrive in Tienray. During the Second World War, 123 Jewish children were taken care of here. A little further on in Groesbeek, Arnout and his friends walk past a replica of a glider from the Second World War. They meet Nelly Kerkhoff, who witnessed the fighting of Operation Market Garden up close.

Arnout Hauben is getting ready to walk through the Netherlands and Belgium one more time. From Lauwersoog he leaves for De Panne in Belgium in the company of cameraman Philippe Niclaes and soundman Ruben Callens. Their first stages take them through Friesland, where they meet the quirky but friendly inhabitants. In Dokkum, Arnout goes looking for a piece of the skull of Saint Boniface, a missionary who was not really warmly received by the Frisians in the 8th century.

The adventure starts on the beach of Ostend and from there Arnout Hauben continues through the Flemish polders. In Meetkerke he meets Amedé, who used to pump water from the polders to drain the land.