Eliot's Travels

Sunrise at 5:30 am on Wednesday. It was beautiful, so I had to go find my camera to ge a picture. The days are getting shorter but it is still quite light at 10 pm. Today we toodled around and went to the Westerhonk playground in the afternoon. It was quite crowded given that the school kids are out for their 6-week break. We were able to swing, play on the merry go-round, and get covered in the very fine sand they have here. Overall, not a bad time!!

Now that we have traveled around the country, we have a lot better feeling of what Holland is like. We are quite fortunate to have found a nice apartment in such a great little town as Delft. For Dutch standards, we have a lot of space. The apartment is modern, so we have the amenities to make life easier - dishwasher, washing machine and dryer (dryers are a very new thing in Holland). The only thing we are really missing is some outdoor access directly from our apartment. To get outside, we travel down our hallway, out to the solarium (there is no airflow in the stairwell - I have seen the thermometer register as high at 50 deg C (that's over 115 deg F), down the elevator and out two doors. At least we have the lift!! We do have the sun room. Here, we can open the windows and the boys can hear the trains, cars, tram go by on Westvest and Phoenixstraat. They really like to dangle their feet through the railing and watch people and things pass by. Since it's a 40-ft drop to the concrete below, we have a rule of no stools in that area and no toys in the sun area or ball kicking when the windows are open. Can't you just see a bouncy ball heading over the railing onto the busy sidewalk and street below? Yikes!

As for Delft, it is still a pretty small town. It's old - very old. But yet is on a major train line, has a great bus and tram system, and you can get anywhere on the bike within 5-10 minutes. It's sleepy (in a good way) compared to Amsterdam. It's not hip like Maastricht. But it is a great place to live life. Getting around, buying food, seeing sights is so easy to do here. It's comfy. There are lots of playgrounds and things for kids. We are very fortunate to have landed in such a good location and to have some great people helping us out.

posted by Whitney @ 6:28 AM