Our First Full Day as Dutchies

Day #2: Wednesday, 24 October 2007

Sleep was the seductive drug of the day, as the kids didn’t wake until after 11am—their method of shaking off the jet lag.

After our “brunch,” a heating repair guy showed up to start thawing out the joint. His efforts were successful, and the apartment is now quite comfortable. But the morning chill gave me a chance to test my firebuilding skills (they’re in excellent shape, thanks) in the fireplace.

We decided to head out on our first adventure today. With car seats in hand, we loaded the kids onto the tram and headed out to pick up Stacey’s car. One tram stop is just 2 blocks from our house—so incredibly convenient. The tram was packed, and the kids had a blast seeing their first real sights of A’dam. Soon enough we arrived at Central Station and hopped on the train to Bussum, located to the east. From the Bussum train station, we took a bus to Huizen, then a short walk to where the car was located.

The VW “Bora” (same as the U.S. “Jetta”) will be a temporary ride until Stacey gets an Audi A3 in a few weeks. Until then, she’ll have her last chance to enjoy automatic transmission on the VW before transitioning to a 5-speed.

Then, it was off to Ikea for our first foray into furniture shopping. After a meal in the store’s cafeteria, time was getting kind of tight, so we just picked up a few misc. household items. The big pieces of furniture will be selected later when we have more time.

It was a great day for our first as Netherlanders.

Tomorrow: Kids get their first taste of school; visit the bank; a trip to The Hague for citizenship registration & social security numbers.