Our first days in The Netherlands

We have been back in The Netherlands for more than a week now, and settling back in has been quite easy so far. After a day flight from Cairo we landed in Schiphol at 3 pm on Thursday, picked up a rental car and drove to our new house, which the girls hadn’t seen yet. It was “welcome to Holland” as we got stuck in a traffic jam straight away! We dropped off our luggage at the house and went to the hotel, a few kilometres down the road. We planned to spend 4 nights here, to allow us to organise some stuff to be able to camp in the house. After that we moved into the house, where we are sleeping on mattresses on the floor. The first days Mary’s brother, Piet mum and sister (with family) visited, each of them contributing to our small household with some essentials. We even spend time walking and hitting some balls on the nearby beach, which is only a 15 minute walk away.

On Tuesday Easter Holiday was over and the girls started at their new school: the International School of The Hague (ISH). It is a 10 minute bike ride from the house. It looks like they settled in reasonably well, at least on the academic front. We managed to get Paula in the advanced French class, so she can continue at her level. Making friends will take some more time, they are daily talking about their lives in Cairo. With internet not up and running yet, contact with Cairo was difficult.

We spend our week at the immigration office, buying a car, getting a washing machine and dryer installed in the cellar, new fridge, IKEA …. you get the picture. As a bonus we received the airfreight (our additional luggage allowance) within a week, containing Piet and Dorien’s bike, tools, sport gear and linen.

Then we got the internet working and contact with friends in Cairo was established. Mary and the girls visited the 3 stables in the area, and have arranged their first horse riding lessons for next week, at the stable across the street.

Piet started working in the head office, which is new for him. It is quite relaxed so far, and he can spend most of his time catching up with old friends, and chasing HR on administrative issues. The best part is cycling to the office, a 25 minutes ride. And no rain so far!

The girls on the beach near our house