September 10, 2002

And it Begins
Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Well, it's been a whirlwind, but we've arrived in our new home in Eindhoven in the Netherlands!! Finally, our adventure has started!!

We have been talking about, planning and saving for quite awhile in preparation for a round the world backpacking trip. In fact, Mark was on a 7 month round the world trip and Heide was on a 3 month USA road trip when we met in July of 1997. The travel bug has never left us... so, after living together and traveling in the United States for 3 years and getting married in October of 2001,... we decided that we were ready for our next big adventure.

As we searched other travelers pages on the internet and through the guidebooks we realized just how expensive it is to travel through many parts of Europe. After awhile, it just made sense that since we have legal eligibility to live and work in the EU, that a move to Europe might just be he best possible way to see Europe in the style that it deserves!

Let me tell you, it wasn't that easy getting here. In January, 2002 Mark requested a transfer to Europe. Surprisingly, Mark's company was fairly receptive to the request... and by February Mark was interviewing with the head of European operations. We flew over to Eindhoven in March for a site visit and for Mark to continue the interview process. At the end of the week, he had a job offer in hand.

Not so fast.... upon arriving back in the States for some unknown reason, Mark's job offer was revoked. Meanwhile, Heide had requested a transfer to Amsterdam through her firm and it was being considered... but the terms were strange and Heide was at a logical career changing point. When Mark's job offer was revoked, Heide wasn't sure that she even wanted to transfer at all.

After much angst over the course of several months,... somehow everything got sorted out with Mark's job offer and he accepted. Heide turned down the transfer she was offered in hopes of finding something once we are settled into life in the Netherlands. Heide will need to find a job in order to make this experience of living in Europe the travel opportunity that we want it to be.

Heide's last day of work was June 21st, but for a variety of reasons she was paid through mid-September. She enjoyed the summer in Seattle... doing a little gardening to get the house ready for the renters, volunteering as a day camp counselor for Carkeek Park Day Camp, and visiting Starbucks and Salt Water State park. The best part of having the time off was being at home! Heide had been working in the Los Angeles area for the previous year and a half, so it was nice to spend a little bit of time in the Seattle area before the big move.

Moving day approached quickly and the weekend that we selected to move must have been one of those important days in the cosmos because everyone seemed to be planning something that weekend. Heide's best friend was getting married in Raleigh, North Carolina... We were moving out of our house... The renters were moving in... We needed to finalize the carpet cleaning that weekend,... AND it was the weekend of the Hillerman family reunion! Fortunately, part of Mark's moving package included professional moving services,... or so we thought.

The movers were coming to pack our house on August 28th and the truck would show up to move our things out of the house on August 29th. Most of our household goods were going into a storage unit because we were planning a renting furnished apartment in Holland. However, we planned to take with us more stuff than we could carry, so, the movers were going to ship a few boxes overseas for us.

Late afternoon on August 26th, Mark got a call from the moving company to tell him that payment had been denied for moving any of our items into a storage unit. They were authorized to move everything we owned (and more!) to Holland, but they couldn't move it one mile away into a storage unit. They "kindly" mentioned that we could choose to pay them ourselves -- a mere $3000. Oh what to do?!? We had red eye tickets to North Carolina on the 31st not to mention the family reunion, the renters... the carpet cleaning!?!?

Well, we never thought we'd say this, but fortunately, the rental company called the next day to tell us that the renters had fallen through! The movers came on Wednesday the 28th and packed/took the things that we were moving to the Netherlands then we started packing everything else for storage. Heide packed all day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (Mark's last day at work!) We got up early on Saturday and drove down to the Pacific coast for a few hours at the family reunion before driving back to the Seattle airport for the red eye flight to Noel and Douglas's wedding.

The wedding was a quick trip... we got there Sunday morning... napped and then headed to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. As the matron of honor, Heide had the joy of staying in a hotel with Noel the night before the wedding! Monday was all day wedding stuff... (everything turned out beautifully) and then we flew back to Seattle on Tuesday. We got in around 9pm... in time to pack a few more boxes before a few hours of restless sleep.

The next morning, Wednesday, Mark ran down to pick up a moving van while Heide waited at home for our friends Andy and Stuart to arrive to help us move! We can not thank Stuart and Andy enough for their assistance... cheers boys! We owe you one!! We only needed two trips with the van... and were pretty much done moving by 3:30pm. We were moved,... but not packed. All of the things that we thought we wanted with us immediately when we got to Eindhoven were sitting in a big pile in the bedroom. We packed it all up and marveled at just how much crap were going to have to get on the train from Amsterdam to Eindhoven! Two proper backpacks, a day pack, two suitcases and a garment bag were heavily laden with our gear.

Not only was Stuart nice enough to help us move, but he and his wife, Angie invited us over to their house that evening to sit in their Jacuzzi and drink wine! What great folks... and such fun to hang out with! Needless to say, with all the stress that we'd had over the last few days,... we had quite a bit to drink and we both had "prune skin" by the time we got out of the Jacuzzi.

We were up at 7am on Thursday to get everything done... we took Mom to work so that we could use her car... (thanks Mom!) and then went to work at our house... cleaning, packing, and finishing everything up. We drove down to the storage unit and dropped off the last boxes... made one more stop at the charity drop, and went to the bank to deposit the cash that Andy had given us for the car! Andy has to be one of the nicest guys in the world... not only did he help us move, but he also purchased our car from us and paid us in advance and let us drive the car right up until the day before we moved!  We drove back and picked up Mom from work. We had a few more errands to run, so we went to the pharmacy, the hardware store (for keys) and to Fred Meyer before heading home to pick up Dad for dinner out at the Keg! After dinner, we had one more errand to run,... we had to go back up to our house and drop off the keys. It was only then that I realized we forgot to clean out the fireplace. Ooops!! Oh well... nothing we could do about it now!

Everything else seemed to be in order. The rental company had found new renters and they were moving in right before October 1st. There was plenty of time for the carpet cleaning to be arranged....

Our departure the next morning was a bit emotional. To be honest, we were both a little surprised about the feelings that came to the surface. Heide shed a few tears in the Northwest Club Lounge before we boarded our flight to Memphis. We connected in Memphis to a KLM flight direct to Amsterdam. Heide slept pretty much the whole way.  We arrived on time in Amsterdam, claimed our luggage, and passed through customs and immigration without a problem and headed for the train station.

Once in Eindhoven, we took a taxi to DAF.... swapped all of our gear into a rental car and got the hotel room keys for "DAF house" from the security guard. We were about 2km from a shower and a good sleep,... BUT the rental car was stick shift and it has bee a LONG time since Mark had driven a manual car. So, we stalled a lot trying to start the car and trying to get to across the factory grounds. We had to laugh...

After hearing so much about DAF house, Heide had an image in her mind that was completely wrong! She was expecting a cozy little cottage... but, DAF house was basically a mid range hotel right on the factory grounds with a nice common area and kitchen.

In our room, Mark's colleagues had left a beautiful bouquet of flowers with a card that said something in Dutch B our interpretation was basically "Hearty welcome!" Our first priority was a shower and a nap... later we helped ourselves to food and drinks and watched "The Rock." Sunday we went out to explore and to find our new apartment. We wouldn't get the keys until Monday, but at least we got to see a little bit of town and had a good wander around.

Yesterday was Mark's first day of work and the day we moved into our apartment. The apartment is great! A nice size and everything we need. The good news is that it's close to town and a decent walk for Mark to get to work. Although we don't have our stuff, we feel as if we are already starting to settle in here.

Next Entry: September 14, 2002

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This Page was last update: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 at 3:46:38 PM
This page was originally posted: 2/17/2004; 3:35:41 PM.
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