Part 1: The Departure, The House, The First Trip

February 5, 2007 - The Departure

Following an emotional weekend filled with well-wishes and good-byes, we opened the morning with a few remaining chores and a flight to catch at 3:30 pm. As expected, not all of the chores were completed and the time slipped too quickly, but we accomplished as much as we “needed” to and made our first international flight as a family of four.

Dustin, Amanda, Jacob, and Dave (the cat) were off. The European adventure began.

Really, the trip over was seamless. For a family of four (including 1 feline and 1 fractured leg), we reached Amsterdam with little trouble. Jacob flew in style with his own seat and bed (we highly recommend the bassinet seating), our bags were waiting on us at Schipol Airport, Dave didn’t die, all bags fit into the rental, and we found our hotel room…

February 6, 2007 – The New House

Remember this was Amanda’s first time on European soil, and in turn, the first time she had seen the house in person. We met our relocation service at the house, got the keys, and started moving in. This house is slightly smaller than our place in Houston (2600 ft2 to 1500 ft2), fewer bedrooms (4 to 2 and a small walk-in closet size room for Jacob), fewer bathrooms (3.5 to 1.5), and a smaller yard (.75 acres to 0 acres.). But, a house is just a shell; the life comes with the people.

We think our house is very cozy and can’t wait until our furniture arrives… We live in Voorburg, NL (just outside Den Haag).

February 6-10, 2007 – Venturing Outside the House

After the initial shock and realization that “we just moved to a different country” wore off, we ventured outside “the safe zone” (i.e. Hotel) to learn the lay of the land. The various trips included:
(1) Tax office for a SoFi number (Dutch Social Security Number for Dustin),
(2) Town Hall for official registration in Voorburg,
(3) Rijswijk for temporary resident visas for Dustin, Amanda, and Jacob (apparently Dave wasn’t good enough),
(4) Four Grocery stores to see what kind of stuff they sell (the rumors were wrong, they do carry Peanut Butter and “normal” Cereal, but we still haven’t seen Q-tips yet),
(5) IKEA (twice) to purchase some bare essential living items,
(6) Car Dealership – we just can’t go without a car, we just are not that Dutch,
(7) Bank to open an account so we could get internet,
(8) KPN for internet, cable, and phone,
(9) Mall for Amanda,
(10) T-mobile for cell phones,
(11) Open Market for flowers, fruits, vegetables, cheese, bratwursts, and some tasty stroopwafles (syrup waffles – there’s a guy there making them fresh, and they are yummy).

February 11, 2007 – The First Road Trip: A Southbound Destination

With only a map, PB&J’s, grapes, and bottled water in hand, we set out around 2pm (or 1400 hrs as it is over here) to find my new office in Rotterdam. Along the way, we decided to extend the trip by driving out of Southern Holland and into Zealand.
The trip was full of windmills - they were huge, pictures don’t show the scale, enormous and many fields and pastures - which is odd since Holland is the most densely populated country in Europe, and lots of water – the North Sea is a very scary creature – the water is incredibly choppy and violent. The towns are small, quaint, and filled with nostalgia. Most are centered around an enormous church which you can see for miles. Amanda and I think we may start a “church-book” because each is so distinctly beautiful. We stopped to take a picture of one in Welberg (pronounced Velburgk – the “gk” sounds like you are hocking a loogy).

The roads are normal, except instead of using stoplights, they use circle drives. Initially, I thought they were a waste of time, but quickly learned to like them because they avoid sitting at stoplights. They still use stoplights, but fewer than they could.

Midway through our trip and around 5pm we happened upon a town called Bergen Op Zoom (same “gk” sound for the g) and saw a lot of people dressed up in costume; hundreds in fact. Around every corner we found people dressed and walking toward the town center. We decided this was a great opportunity to see something new so we parked and started walking with them --- to somewhere. Along the way we asked a lady what was going on and she said it was the 3rd weekend of the 4 week Carnival. We asked her if it was a gathering for people to “eat and drink together” and she responded “really just drink together”. We assume it is something like Mardi Gras in New Orleans and / or Carnival in Brazil, but on a much smaller scale.


When we reached what appeared to be the final destination, we found clans of bands playing music and lots of people drinking… It was a great experience and we were lucky to find it.

On the way back to home we drove across 20-30 miles of bridges; actually they were roads built on top of the expansive levee system. It was impressive. A great drive at sunset.