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April 2015 -- After nearly 2 years of living in this beautiful city, Jon and I are counting down until we return home. There was some debate whether it would be at the end of May or the end of April, but the decision finally was made that 30 April would be our final day here in Amsterdam.
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Our original plan was to take the final 3 weeks, or so, of our time here and use the last of our vacation up on a road trip around Spain and Portugal (why not go out the way we came in?!), and we put our final notice in with our landlord for the end of March. We figured a week or so in a hotel would be fine, we could place most of our luggage in storage and enjoy our final days... However, with Jon's final work project taking up a little more of his time we decided to work through April and just take the time in the beginning of May. This left us a bit homeless when 1 April came around. Luckily his company has an apartment that they rent out to employees for both short and long term rentals, but it wouldn't be ready until 3 April... Hotel it is!
31 March - With our final day in our apartment upon us and all our bags packed, Jon and I spent the morning (and the previous weekend) cleaning our little home. While our opinion of our little place has changed quite a bit since we first moved in, we treated the place with a lot of TLC. But in the end, between the shoddy craftsmanship, the mice, and an ill equipped kitchen that seemed to create dirt from thin air, we were ready to break free. If you know me (Sarah) you know that I am a sentimental cry-baby, and after 2 years in our "Home" I was sort of looking forward to a tearful farewell. Only the Dutch could/would deny me this moment.
When we first moved in the woman from the leasing company walked in and looked around to make sure that everything was there and that there were no gaping holes in the walls/furniture, and she was out in about 7 minutes. Great. We moved our bags up the stairs and began a deep cleaning of our place. It was pretty filthy, but we were willing to put in the time (about 5 hours of both Jon and myself deep cleaning). Upon move-out when the new gentleman came to check out the place and make sure that it was in good shape, it was a different story. He was swiping his finger over every surface and giving each and every square cm a look over and taking notes on his clipboard. I could see where this was going - my blood pressure began to rise and Jon started pacing around the living room. I neglected to mention that when we moved in we pointed out many of these "little things" to the woman, and she dismissed them all as normal wear and tear... fair enough. When we mentioned this to the gentleman he said, "well I have to take note of it because it's not written down." Ugh. He actually mentioned and wrote down "Age spots on the curtains" which I feel implies just that, AGE not us, has stained the curtain.
After the hour long Marine Corps inspection of our place we were both fuming and envisioned dousing the place in petrol and lighting it on fire. We were so happy to get out of there and make our way to the hotel. With our room key, an unexpected platinum membership upgrade and drink vouchers to a swanky nearby bar in hand, we made our way to our room. It was petite, but it was better than that dammed apartment. We spoke too soon... It was the ONLY room on the basement level right next to the boiler room, and on a near freezing day the room was about 85F (30C) and we had to turn on the AC.
Platinum? Clearly.
Thankfully we were only there for a few days, and it gave us a chance to see a side of the city that we really had not spent much time in. We moved all our belongings in to our new place on a Friday (a much smoother process) and were quite ready to head out of the city for the Holiday weekend (Easter). Even more than ever, we are quite ready to get back to the States. Looking forward to seeing all the familiar faces and a summer of fun in the Pacific Northwest sun!
Our original plan was to take the final 3 weeks, or so, of our time here and use the last of our vacation up on a road trip around Spain and Portugal (why not go out the way we came in?!), and we put our final notice in with our landlord for the end of March. We figured a week or so in a hotel would be fine, we could place most of our luggage in storage and enjoy our final days... However, with Jon's final work project taking up a little more of his time we decided to work through April and just take the time in the beginning of May. This left us a bit homeless when 1 April came around. Luckily his company has an apartment that they rent out to employees for both short and long term rentals, but it wouldn't be ready until 3 April... Hotel it is!
31 March - With our final day in our apartment upon us and all our bags packed, Jon and I spent the morning (and the previous weekend) cleaning our little home. While our opinion of our little place has changed quite a bit since we first moved in, we treated the place with a lot of TLC. But in the end, between the shoddy craftsmanship, the mice, and an ill equipped kitchen that seemed to create dirt from thin air, we were ready to break free. If you know me (Sarah) you know that I am a sentimental cry-baby, and after 2 years in our "Home" I was sort of looking forward to a tearful farewell. Only the Dutch could/would deny me this moment.
When we first moved in the woman from the leasing company walked in and looked around to make sure that everything was there and that there were no gaping holes in the walls/furniture, and she was out in about 7 minutes. Great. We moved our bags up the stairs and began a deep cleaning of our place. It was pretty filthy, but we were willing to put in the time (about 5 hours of both Jon and myself deep cleaning). Upon move-out when the new gentleman came to check out the place and make sure that it was in good shape, it was a different story. He was swiping his finger over every surface and giving each and every square cm a look over and taking notes on his clipboard. I could see where this was going - my blood pressure began to rise and Jon started pacing around the living room. I neglected to mention that when we moved in we pointed out many of these "little things" to the woman, and she dismissed them all as normal wear and tear... fair enough. When we mentioned this to the gentleman he said, "well I have to take note of it because it's not written down." Ugh. He actually mentioned and wrote down "Age spots on the curtains" which I feel implies just that, AGE not us, has stained the curtain.
After the hour long Marine Corps inspection of our place we were both fuming and envisioned dousing the place in petrol and lighting it on fire. We were so happy to get out of there and make our way to the hotel. With our room key, an unexpected platinum membership upgrade and drink vouchers to a swanky nearby bar in hand, we made our way to our room. It was petite, but it was better than that dammed apartment. We spoke too soon... It was the ONLY room on the basement level right next to the boiler room, and on a near freezing day the room was about 85F (30C) and we had to turn on the AC.
Platinum? Clearly.
Thankfully we were only there for a few days, and it gave us a chance to see a side of the city that we really had not spent much time in. We moved all our belongings in to our new place on a Friday (a much smoother process) and were quite ready to head out of the city for the Holiday weekend (Easter). Even more than ever, we are quite ready to get back to the States. Looking forward to seeing all the familiar faces and a summer of fun in the Pacific Northwest sun!
A few pictures from our weekend drive to Paris & back up through Southern Holland :)
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| Arc de Triumphe |
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| My last real French macaroon... for a while. |
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| Notre Dame on Easter Sunday We were treated to no line and the tail end of the Easter service. |
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| Jardin du Luxembourg |
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| A little garden just on the other side of Place des Vosges |
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| We |
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| Dutch pancakes - bacon and syrup (mine) & apple cinnamon (Jon) |
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| A pretty sunset near Olympic Stadium |
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| Sunny afternoon at the Rijks |
