Arriving in Amsterdam - Moving companies and beyond

Arrived @ Schipol Airport, Amsterdam, The Netherlands  October 15, 2014

Crazy amounts of luggage at Schipol Airport

We arrived in Amsterdam the morning of October 15th. It was the girls first time seeing their new city which they were very excited about. When we chose our new home on Willemsparkweg, we were told that the construction was supposed to be completed prior to our moving to Amsterdam. When we arrived, the road in front of our home was completely torn up- no sidewalks, no road, no bike path. There was dirt EVERYWHERE, big trucks and heavy machinery blocking both ends, and no parking allowed. We were supposed to stay one night in the hotel, but ended up having to stay an extra night, because the rental furniture company that was supposed to be dropping our furniture off Wednesday morning, could not figure out how to get the furniture down our street and into the house. Though our relocation company had sent them pictures of the construction and given them warning, they acted like they had no idea it was going on, and did not come prepared with the proper equipment or crew.

Willemsparkweg Construction

We finally got into our new home on Friday and the girls were thrilled. Maya's room is equivalent to a postage stamp.and Hanna's is gigantic. Maya has been a very good sport about it, and actually seems to love her tiny little space. Hanna wishes she had a smaller room, but she is stuck (poor girl) with a large room for the next few years.

Moving, Air Shipments, Sea Shipments...mass confusion

Our Air shipment made it here to the Netherlands within 2 weeks and our sea shipment just over a month (much better than the 2 months to Japan!). Once again, the construction threw a wrench in everything- out home was FILTHY after the rental furniture company came in. We had several issues with out moving company out of Michigan. Scott and I had a feeling things were going to get messed up right off the get go. The contact person who came to our home to do the initial walk through hardly paid attention to anything, didn't write anything down, etc. She sent people to crate our TVs, only to find out they couldn't crate them (they have to be a certain size as well as type of TV to crate), they sent a different crew everyday...it was a mess. When our items got here we had quite a bit of damage (still working through that with the insurance company), as well as several missing boxes- pantry stuff, all of Scott's work stuff, a bunch of kitchen items and an entire closet full of winter gear, shoes, sunglasses, etc. To make this story shorter, they ended up hiring another moving company to go get our things, re-inventory it all and look for our missing stuff, and move all of our items to the new companies storage facilities. What a mess! The new company did not find our things, which mean they are either stored in someone else's storage facility, got shipped with someone else's sea or air shipment,  or got stolen. We are in the process of settling the lost items claim, as well as figuring out how to replace it all over here. What a pain!

Brussels, Belgium

Our first trip outside the Netherlands was a day trip to Brussels, Belgium. While there we visited  a few different places: The La Grande-Place, Town Hall, a Chocolatier, the Atomiom, Mini-Europe and Cantillion Brewery- a little bit for everyone.

La Grand-Place:  Around a cobbled rectangular market square, La Grand-Place in Brussels, the earliest written reference to which dates back to the 12th century, features buildings emblematic of municipal and ducal powers, and the old houses of corporations. An architectural jewel, it stands as an exceptional and highly successful example of an eclectic blending of architectural and artistic styles of Western culture, which illustrates the vitality of this important political and commercial centre

The Girls in front of La Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium

Atomiom- Built for the 1958 World Fair, the Atomium represents a molecule's nine atoms – magnified 165 billion times. Something of a symbol of the city, it provides a panoramic view of Brussels and its surroundings. We also visited the Mini Europe, located right near the Atomiom.

In front of the Atomoim- we went up in all the "atoms"

Mini Europe

Scott in front in the La Grand Place square

Brussels at night

Our final stop was picking up some beer at the Cantillion Brewery. Cantillion brews some of Scott's favorite beer- beer that is next to impossible to find and drink in the U.S.

2014... a year of ridiculous change

This past year, 2014, has to have been one of the busiest, craziest and most special years we have had to date as a family. After waiting for the past 2 years for another overseas assignment to come our way, it looked like it was not going to happen. Scott and I had set a timeline for accepting another move- it had to be before Maya was in 7th grade. We wanted to make sure that our kids were old enough to remember and grow from the experience, but also for Maya to be back in time to enjoy 4 years of high school in Portage, with her friends and all in one place. We both want our girls to graduate from high school feeling like they had a home to come back to- not just a place to visit.

So when February hit and it did not look like it was going to happen, we decided, instead, to look for a new home. We had outgrown the home that we had bought when we moved to Michigan from Connecticut, and were looking for something with a different floor plan, in a different neighborhood, with a larger, quieter backyard to enjoy having friends over, hanging out in and playing with our dog, Miko. We were lucky enough to find a home that fit all of these requirements, and during the 1st week of May, 2014, we moved in- ready to enjoy our new home and neighborhood....haha. That very same week, Scott was approached about a potential job opportunity in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Stryker was about to open up a European headquarters, and they were at the beginning stages of placing existing employees/positions over in that location. While we were excited (we really wanted an opportunity to spend time in Europe), the timing was not ideal. Thankfully, it took about 2 months for Stryker to figure out the job, and what it would entail...giving Scott and I enough time to sort-of settle in to our new home, research a bit and discuss, both with each other and with the kids, the idea of moving again, so soon. Frankly, we both were in the "no" category, until we spoke to Maya and Hanna. Surprisingly, they both said yes- they wanted to do it again!

In August, Scott and I took a trip over to look at places to live and visit the school we were looking at for the girls. While the city seemed promising, the housing did not. There were only 13 houses available- in both Amstelveen (suburb) and Old South (Oud Zuid) Amsterdam in any sort of price range that we could afford. 1/2 of them had stairs so steep or narrow that we were not even willing to consider the homes. Others had only 1 bathroom, or 2 bedrooms on one floor and a third two levels down. It was an overall highly frustrating trip, but by the end, we made a few sacrifices and ended up finding a home that we think we can live happily in for 2-3 years.

Amsterdam

We spent the majority of August and September organizing, planning, talking to moving companies, rental companies, property management companies, language and cultural training companies, finding our dog, Miko a temporary home to live in...there was SO much to get done in such a short period of time, getting ourselves ready for a mid-October move. During this, we also tried to see as many people as we could, and live a normal life for the kids- filled with club soccer, piano practices, school get togethers and friends. It was a VERY STRESSFUL two months (unless you have a very strong marriage, I do not recommend moving two times in a matter of 5 months).

We ended up figuring it all out, the most important being a home for our dog. Miko has been a part of our family for 2.5 years, and we love him tremendously, We just didn't know how to get him to Amsterdam with his anxiety issues and did not have a ton of time to research it. We are hoping to bring him over next fall when we come back from the States.

Move week was the week of my 41st birthday- October 6-10, 2014. We wanted to pick a different week, but we did not have much choice, or time available. The movers came (a whole other entry to this blog) that week, packed up our things and after a few nights in a hotel, finishing up the fall soccer season with Lightning and dropping Miko off at his new home on a farm in Burlington, we were off.

Good thing we had an SUV- all of this came with us on our Move flight to Amsterdam