#2 August 15, 2011 Settling in to Our Neighbor

We have a modest but comfortable 2nd floor flat at the end of a long row of connected homes on a quiet residential street.  Its about 950 square feet with 4 rooms, including an office with book shelves, and all the typical apartment-style furnishings: a couple easy chairs, TV, dishwasher, table, desk, and one of those stacked washer/dryer combos, with a washer that sounds like its trying to achieve sub-orbital speed when it hits its spin cycle.  It has a tree-shaded balcony overlooking the court at the end of the street, which we have already used extensively for enjoying coffee in the morning or a beer in the evening.  This is the first time the owners, Hanneke and Marcus, have rented it out.  He is an airline pilot flying out of Spain, and she decided to spend more time there, so we are now living in their “baby”.

The neighbors are very friendly.  Florine and Arthur live on the bottom floor with their kids, 3 little blond bundles of energy aged 7,5, and 3.  Florine is a stay-at-home mom, and Arthur runs a business.  Above us are Crystal and Sanna.  They have one little tow-headed boy of 2, and one more child on the way.  Sanna looks for all the world like a California surfer dude.  He is finishing the last year in his medical training as a surgeon.  Crystal manages a foundation she established which builds schools for under privileged in Nicaragua. Just around the corner in the intersecting line of row houses is Jan and Ank (“Anna).  She is a retired English teacher and he is a nearly retired civil engineer.  They invited us out for a wonderful bike ride through the surrounding countryside this past Saturday, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

We love going down to “Roberto’s”, the little neighborhood gelato shop a couple blocks away.  We are never quite sure what flavor we are ordering, but they are all good and made fresh on the premises.  There are usually other neighbors down there as well, and best of all, they don’t sing to you like at Coldstone.  Another favorite is the little bakery a little further down the street where they make fresh croissants and bread every morning.  Further away out on the busy street (“Biltstraat”), we have discovered a California Bagel shop, “Beans and Bagels”, with the best latte’s and bagels with interesting and delicious spreads.  It is always packed with students.

The most interesting feature of our neighborhood, however, is a huge medieval building down the street with two towering gothic spires with high shuttered windows on it.  The sign outside identifies it as a “hoge school” (a combination junior college and 4 year state college), but to us it is “Hogwarts High School.”  It looks like it is right out of central casting.  School hasn’t started yet, but we are looking forward to watching the quiddich games and the occasional errant lightning bolt that might escape.

Our neighborhood, like most in Holland, has its own “green” car as well.  Cars are more expensive to own and run here, so a government program parks cars permanently in many neighborhoods.  Local residents can set up accounts and reserve the cars for trips when needed.  Normally they would run their errands on their bikes, but when they need  to run an errand requiring a car, they can go online and get an access code and use the local “green car”.  The cost is charged to their account.  Back home, we have a similar thing, but we call them “bait” cars.

     Time to venture out of our neighborhood and explore Utrecht- the University town!