Just in case anyone else is obsessed with architecture (or has several million Euros lying around), I'd thought I'd share that Vechtoever, the country house on what was the estate Jacob Hezekiah Machado, head administrator of the Provinciale Utrechtsche Geoctroyeerde Compagnie, is for sale: http://www.buitenplaatsvechtoever.nl/index.html. The PUGC was a speculation company that held lotteries, operated at sugar plantation in Suriname, and opened the Sugar House (http://tinyurl.com/oxy7rjo) in Utrecht. Around 150 Sephardic Jews invested in the company. The country house is a wonderful example of Vecht architecture and includes a stunning tea/garden house. A number of wealthy Jews from Amsterdam had houses along the Vecht to escape the smells in Amsterdam during the summer (the canals used to be very polluted). There used to be a Portuguese synagogue in the town of Maarssen and a cemetery nearby http://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/lcdl/catalog/lcdl:51098