Whoa!!!

Has anybody seen the handbrake? If yes, please pull it! The move to Amsterdam is in full on attack mode and I wonder if everything will come together all right eventually.

We had 2 moving companies in our apartment for pre-move surveys. Oh how I hate it. I get all panicky when I invite people over to my place, "Is everything spotless, are all the pictures leveled, is the light setting appropriate?" but with movers coming in it´s even worse. They want to look in your drawers, open closets, measure everything. "That´s my stuff!!" the 3 year old boy cries in my head "Don´t touch it!!!" but what can I do. Moving all the stuff myself? I don´t think so, so I have to suffer through it. The poor men, they heard "Oh that drawer, you don´t need to look into that drawer, I will pack it up myself, should be half a box which I will label "PRIVATE HANDS OFF" quite a few times.

If you think that they can simply pack up everything one day, ship it to Goudaland and unpack it there two days after that, you are sadly mistaken. The Dutch are a bit particular with peoples households entering the country. You have to hand in a a letter asking for permission, that part is ok, but you can only hand in that letter if you have registered yourself in Amsterdam, got a social security number, have a lease in Amsterdam, plus three gazillion copies of everything. The process to clear customs takes between 14 and 60!!!!! days. Now here is the kicker, you can only register yourself in Amsterdam if you can provide them with a lease, and original birth and marriage certificates that are not older than 6 month. HELLO?! I have all the certificates needed but they are too old?! I am still the same person and getting new certificates in Germany is a nightmare. Oh well, I guess we are lucky that we are more or less close to the Netherlands. Temp housing would be my personal nightmare.

Some people make it easy though. We have been assigned a wonderful real estate agent who exactly understood what we are looking for after one briefing.

We told her that we would need:

-90+ m2 size
-3 or more bedrooms, one of which will be converted into a walk in closet
-parking available (1 car, either underground parking or parking permit)
-built in kitchen, but apartment otherwise unfurnished
-Newly renovated
-Full length windows
-Terrace
-Hardwood floors
-No ground floor apartments
-Storage in cellar or attic preferred
-Good car connection to a motor way leading to Schiphol
-Good public transportation connection to downtown
- Price range X-Z in hard to get neighborhoods.

We thought she would come up with next to nothing, but we were wrong. She sent us a list of over 20 places, including pictures and details and we have picked 8 favorites.
So, we´re off to Amsterdam for a couple of days this week to look at all those places. I am really excited.

If everything goes according to plan, I have 4 weeks in Geneva left. So much to do, so many people to see, so many drinks that need to be had and so little time.

Oh well, I am happy anyway!

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