We are safely in Rotterdam! The flight on Tuesday was very average with Bron disagreeing with airport security. Seriously, those guys need to get a life! Anyway, we made it onto the plane and Bron got smoothly through passport control before Justin did! What a civilised country =) We caught a speed train from Schiphol and were in Rotterdam in 30 min. First impressions of Rotterdam are that it is clean, the people are friendly, everyone we have spoken to so far can speak English and we understand more Dutch than we thought we would, yay!
First on the agenda was to find an apartment. Eight viewings and two days later and we decided to take the first place we saw. Murphy's Law isn't it. So we paid a type of booking deposit today and will sign the contract tomorrow. So hopefully it will all be settled and finalised tomorrow. The lease will be from 1 March for a year so we can move in when we get back from our travels. Haven't heard about any progress of our furniture yet but hopefully it is on its way or will be soon!
Our new apartment is on Mathenesserlaan which is in the old part of Rotterdam. It is in the city centre so very central but at the same time feels like it is outside the city. A large part of Rotterdam was destroyed in WWII but this street was less damaged and so is one of the oldest in the city. It really is beautiful and will be even more so in the summer. We don't have any pics of it as yet, but have a look on Google Maps to see where it is.
The building is quite old but the apartment has been re-done so is reasonably modern. It has two bedrooms, walk-in cupboards in the main room (yay!), downlighting, a modern bathroom with a massive round bath and separate shower, fridge, dishwasher etc in the kitchen and a loft type room where the washing machine and tumble dryer is. There is also a fixed desk and other cupboards for storage space in the loft. We will have to get cupboards or book shelves for the lounge but that is ok, most of the places we looked at had no cupboards at all! The apartment is on the third floor with no lift and interesting twisty stairs. Hoping all our furniture (especially the couch) makes it up there safely! Just outside the door, but belonging to our apartment, is a sort-of balcony and another guest toilet. Will put some pics up when we move in for real. The one weird thing is that the walls in the lounge are at an angle; half way up they lean in a bit. Hanging pictures is going to be interesting! It is a very different sort of apartment but think we will be happy there. We looked at 8 places but this was the best deal for us and the best value for money of what we saw.
The other thing we had to sort out this week is Bron's registration for a residence permit. We knew before we left SA that we had 3 days to find an apartment, sign a lease agreement and register; hence the mad rush to find a place to stay this week. So we went to where we have to register to confirm and clarify the process yesterday and today and got a slightly different answer each time. You have to love government departments! Basically, the register within 3 days part is with the alien's police which Bron doesn't have to do since we are staying in hotels and are moving on in a few days. Her Schengen Visa is valid for 90 days so we don't have to rush with the registration, in fact the guy encouraged us not to rush and keep it simple! Apparently Bron is seen as an EU citizen because she is married to a British citizen. All very weird but we are happy to accept it!! The people were very friendly and helpful and assured us we were not doing anything illegal. So when we return after our travels we can register and open bank accounts etc. After Bron recieves her residence permit she is free to work as well.
So the plans for the next few days are to hopefully sign the lease tomorrow, explore Amsterdam on Saturday, visit museums in Rotterdam on Sunday, do some apartment admin on Monday and start our travels on Tuesday, yay! The plan is to go from here to Berlin, Prague, Munich and then head to Hopfgarten in Austria (near Innsbruck) for our Contiki ski week starting 19 Feb. No fixed plans after that but probably head to Italy. Will make it up as we go along.
This afternoon we enjoyed a lovely walk along the River Maas and through the park near our apartment. It has been really cold and misty since we arrived so we were really stoked when it cleared up and the sun came out today! It's pretty sad that we thought it was a lovely day! lol. Just up from our hotel is a small patch of grass with a fence around it with two sheep grazing. Very odd in the city but we like them =)
Sorry no pictures this time, haven't been taking the camera to apartment viewings, lol. Until next time when we will hopefully be on our way to explore more of Europe!
Have a good weekend!
x
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