Hey, I’m going to trial this as a way to keep everyone sort of up to date with our progress in NL.
I’m not sure if it’s the best way to do it, but it’s something. Equally I’m not sure if I’ll keep it going for very long but again, it’s something. Most people seem to just want to roughly know what is going on so this should keep things in one place. I’ll keep things pretty brief also.
We left our friends’ house (Kate and Al) in Lenzie at 7am on Friday 27th Jan and got to GLA v early – way too early as KLM hadn’t even opened a desk for bag checking yet. Moving the 5 large cases, 5 small cases and a buggy was a challenge but we managed – Reuben did great.
Flight was great, all well behaved. A very nervous flier was kind enough to move over to let us sit in a more convenient formation which was nice of him. El and I chatted with the dutch flight attendants about moving to Eindhoven.
Arrived into Schipol at about 1330 and the kids played on the conveyer belt escalator things happily.
Loaded up our masses of cases and made our way to the driver that ASML has arranged for us. We had so many bags we got stuck in the doors leaving arrivals and three security people had to come and sort it out. I had about 50 people waiting behind me. El scarpered with the kids, ha!
Having a driver was brilliant.
Drive was about 1h20m and was pretty smooth except for kids starting to get tired. Arrived at the ASML accommodation at around 1600. We are at Van Bergijkstraat 8. It’s 15 min walk into the city centre and lots of good shops all close by. The place is comfy enough and well fitted with everything we need
On Sat morning me and Reuben went out the shops and got some food. We all took a walk into town in the afternoon. Was pretty surreal processing that although we were exploring a new European city, this isn’t a city break! People were sitting out in the cafe’s and there was markets everywhere. Kids got tired quickly
Sunday through to Tuesday was a mix of logistics and going out for walks. Highlights include :
- Celebrating our 12.5 year wedding anniversary on Sunday (which is a big deal here in NL)
- Getting a bike on Monday (we will get all our bikes when our stuff gets through customs)
- Doing a dry run of the cycle to and from work and getting to see the (enormous) campus for the first time.
- Getting a load of shopping and bringing it home on the bike (scary stuff on a first day cycling the new bike and cycling in NL for the first time in about 10 years)
- Managing to bring my registration appointment forward 2 weeks from the 20th Feb to 6th of Feb (this is a real stroke of luck because until i’ve had this appointment there are MANY things which cannot proceed such as customs clearance / bank accounts / utilities / phones etc)
- Seeing our new house on Tuesday
Bedankt voor de leuke blog. Wat een avontuur! Love the little video clips. Love from us all.
Reuben – ‘Thanks! Good job on your Dutch’
J – ‘thanks for the comment 😘 miss you guys’
Hi Joe and El. Miraculously I’ve managed to find where I get to comment. I enjoyed the run down on your arriving activities. Do you have to cycle on the right hand side of the road or are there cycle tracks. Take care x
There are usually cycle path which run on either side of the road in One Direction. Sometimes there is a single cycle path with two way traffic. There is almost never a time when there is not a cycle path. We drive/cycle on the right hand side.
This is the first time I’ve used a blog since I travelled in USA & Canada for work. Not sure how it all works but I’ll probably get used to it. Tot ziens.
10 points for your Dutch
The strange device that appeared in our kitchen is a coffee scoop with a crocodile clasp to seal the coffee packet after use. It took some serious detective work to discover that. I was stuck on melon ballers for a long time before making the necessary leap of imagination.
That is a great explanation!
Zoete analyse van je week, het voelde alsof ik in je dagboek keek of misschien in je hersenen
Dank je wel mijn broer