Work in The Netherlands has begun for me. Mike is still in Arizona, waiting for the kids to finish school and trying to get all of our affairs in order.
The biggest of these is getting Mangas ready to be stored on dry dock for the coming year. What we know with Mangas is that she stays in much better shape when we are onboard everyday living with her. She gets her decks cleaned, her winches cared for and the lines are tucked neatly when not in use. She gets bumped and bruised a bit as the five of us lumber across her, knocking in to her door frames when she heels or dropping that large can of tomatoes on her fine teak galley floor. But even so, she shines and her maintenance is kept up.
For nearly 2 years, she has been on the hard, awaiting funds and Mike’s availability to get her bottom completely redone. She has boat pox that has likely existed since she was first produced, but over the years it has gotten worse. Over that time, those little blisters had continued to do what they do, namely suck in corrosive salt water, which in turn can expand into the gelcoat and ultimately corrode to a point where you can get structural damage. While she has been on the hard in Rocky Point, she has been beaten by heat and sun below her water line, and the sails and winches are encased in sand and grit that flies in from the hot arid inland. And, oh yeah, she was burgled by someone who shimmied up nearly 17 feet to her deck on a connected extension cord. The culprit got away with our Marine SSB Radio, handheld radios, various other technical items and, believe it or not, took the original mirror that was in the bar cupboard in our galley. Huh?
The bottom line, she looked like hell. And we felt extremely guilty. Mike has been making side trips to get her bottom fixed. First, stripping all of the paint layers and coating and getting her down to the fiberglass, then repairing her as necessary.
He will head down in June to finish up the fairing and paint so we can have her shrink wrapped until next summer.
Meanwhile, Mike and I were able to come out to The Netherlands in mid-March to look at living options before I started work. Originally, the whole family was to come during the kids’ Spring Break, but lo’ and behold, we didn’t realize their passports would expire in May and they needed 90 days to be remaining on their passports when they enter Holland. So, last minute scramble on the Saturday of our departure! My dad would watch Reid at our house and Mike’s dad came down from Flagstaff to fetch the girls for the week.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, not only did my dad need to watch Reid, he also had these little guys to look after…
Milo and Mia, proud parents
So, with the kids and puppies in good hands, Mike and I head to Amsterdam. I don’t actually remember the flight that much. I tend to draw a nice tidy blank in my memory for overseas trips in economy class. But, we made it and were famished when we landed. Unfortunately, the only thing open at that time was Burger King in the Schiphol Airport. The one redeemer for Mike, you could order beer there! Take a close look at the can…the little numbers under Heineken… that read 0.0. Oh, well.
We then spent the next week traveling from North Holland to Limburg to visit international schools and take a look at rentals available for each area. There are plenty of places to rent in the Netherlands, unless you are looking for a garage. Most garages here are “car boxes”, which barely fit a compact car. If you know Mike at all, then you know that he is seeking garage large enough for him to work on his vehicles, so the search was on…
We really enjoyed the Maastricht area in Limburg very much. However, a quick email from my future employer stating that I really needed to be based out of Amsterdam quickly quashed that idea and we concentrated on up north.
We really liked the look and feel of the area known as Het Gooi. It consists of a few smallish cities and villages about 25 minutes south of Amsterdam. The International School Hilversum is located there to serve expat communities for larger global companies like Nike who have regional corporate offices in the area. As well, Media Park is located here and it is where most of Dutch television is produced.
Het Gooi
Getting onto the waiting list of an international school for the following school year was very important, so we needed to decide during our preview visit.
We felt really good about the area and how the villages and shops were setup. It is interesting that for one of the most populated countries on the planet given population to land size, it doesn’t feel crowded in the Netherlands (Amsterdam aside). There are plenty of pasture lands and forest preserves, so it is not difficult to find yourself on a footpath with no one else in site.
Hilversum side street
We explored the area for a day more before Mike had to depart. Finding a good Indonesian restaurant is not difficult given prior Dutch colonization of that country. But, we were still pleased to have come across Kartika. There were two menu options: Vegetarian, non-Vegetarian. We took the non-vegetarian and were served many smaller dishes with a variety levels.
Enjoying Indonesian at Kartika
All delicious and made us feel a bit nostalgic for our days back in Irian Jaya. Also, very good to know that spicy food was within easy reach here since traditional Dutch food does not have the heat that Mike and I enjoy.
We also had the opportunity to take a night stroll
Frederiksstraat
through Vondelpark to the street named Frederiksstraat (Frederick’s Street) where Mike’s mother was born and her family lived before immigrating to the US.
Before we knew it, it was time for us to head back to Arizona. Having settled on Het Gooi, the search for a rental property would begin and I would return in 2 short weeks to begin working and living in the Netherlands.
SV Mangas 