We arrived safely in Amsterdam early Saturday morning. We picked up all of our luggage and had a driver meet us at the airport. Thankfully, he came prepared with a large van to handle all of our giant suitcases 🙂 We were met at our apartment by our contact at the Expat Housing Network to give us our keys. I even met our neighbors that have a little dog named Charlie. Obviously I forgot to ask what the name’s of the humans are-whoops!
Next up was hauling our large suitcase up 4 flights of stairs in the strobe lighting/dark. We learned that the light switches are on a short timer and several times ended up in the dark. It took both Ryan and I both tag teaming each suitcase to make it work. Note for visitors, you are welcome to stay, but are responsible for carrying up your own luggage so we suggest no checked bags! The only exceptions are for mom’s so Marie and Kristy you are in lucky! Remember, we have laundry machines here too.
The stairs are worth the beautiful canal views!
The apartment comes furnished which is nice, although there was more shopping than I think we both expected. For example, there is no garbage bin and only 4 forks. I guess they do say that the Dutch are frugal and thrifty! We spent our first day mostly trying to set up phone plans, buy kitchen stuff, and go to the grocery store. It is a little difficult with COVID as you have to make an appointment to go to any store other than the grocery store. We don’t know what stores carry what here so it is difficult not being able to browse. I think we will end up doing more online shopping than we originally planned for! For example, we tried 2 groceries stores and a store called HEMA that is similar to Target and no luck with the garbage can so far!
We did a little walking around our neighborhood with lattes from the cafe down the street. It was strange to see the flower market all boarded up with COVID. After that, we feel asleep pretty early!
Our second day in Amsterdam was mostly the same as day 1, but we did manage to stay up a little later and walk around our neighborhood at night! I love the canals lit up- it truly is magical. We also did like the locals and walk around with beers 🙂
❤ Melanie
Smiles from Miles Away 