The US Consulate in Amsterdam

On Wednesday, I took the early morning train North with Hendrik so I could live the American dream: visiting the US Consulate in Amsterdam. The goal: to renew my passport.

I found myself caught between the US and Dutch regulations. In order to renew my passport by mail, I had to send in my old one with the application. However, technically by Dutch law I am not allowed to be here without my passport. It probably would have been ok for the time it took me to get a new one except that I also wanted to travel. Although we would be traveling within the EU Schengen zone and therefore would not need to go through a government passport check, I would still run into trouble because the airlines require passports as ID to board the plane. The solution: renew the passport in person so I can hold on to the old one until the new one is ready.

The visit to the consulate is a little tricky because one is not allowed to bring any electronic devices into the building, including cell phones. That means I had to stash my phone and navigate all the way to the consulate the old fashioned way. I’ve only had a smart phone for a year and a half and somehow I have lost all of my ability to function without one.

Upon arrival at the consulate, I had to wait in line to be admitted by security. The man in front of me had brought his phone and tried to convince security to let him in because it wasn’t a smart phone. After several minutes of discussion, the guard said, “come right this way sir.” He escorted the man into the building and disappeared for several minutes. During this time, no one was admitted into the building. I overheard the Dutch people in line behind me discussing that maybe it was allowed to have a cell phone as long as it wasn’t a smart phone and how nice the guard was to let the man in. So naive. I can only assume that man was detained in a blast-proof room until the guards could verify that it was really just a cell phone. Certainly, once I was admitted to the building I did not see him in the waiting room anywhere.

Luckily, I was sent through the crowded general waiting room to the room with the short line for the American citizens. There I discovered how massively unprepared my fellow countrymen were for their appointments. I overheard conversations like “my passport expires in 4 days, so I thought maybe I should renew it but I am going to be traveling for the next 2 weeks. What? No, I didn’t fill out an application,” and, “my roommate stole my passport when he got evicted and I didn’t realize it was missing until he tried to ransom it and the only ID I have with me is my Dutch visa.” After all of that, the woman at the counter seemed quite happy to process my application for which I had read the instructions several times and followed all rules to a T. Now I can only hope that all goes well when I have to return to the consulate to pick it up.

 

Bicycling home from Nancy’s work

We celebrated the nice weather yesterday with a bicycle ride through Belgium from Nancy’s office (I worked from home on Friday).

We began with dinner and beer at a wonderful brewery in the middle of nowhere, crossed to the Belgian side, and went south through Flanders and into Maastricht. There were beautifully separated bike paths almost everywhere.

-Hendrik

Pisa!

A bit late, I’ll wrap up our trip to Italy. Early flights home made it necessary to spend our last night in Pisa.

The four of us enjoyed the pretty center of the city and some fantastic food, despite the spectacular heat. We saw the leaning tower of course, but no one was in the mood to climb it in that heat.

-Hendrik

Climbing in Belgium 2

After climbing at the gym for a couple of months, I managed to wrangle some of the other American expats to go climbing outdoors in Belgium (you’ll recall that the Netherlands is too flat and there is nothing to climb here). The climbing was good but the area was swarming with ticks and the rocks were covered in spider webs so that part was less than ideal. Hopefully I have avoided tick bites and Lyme disease. On the bright side we found a delicious African restaurant for dinner on the way home although I was not brave enough to try the crocodile.

Kayaks and hiking

In addition to our beach lounging, we also did some more strenuous vacationing: first, we rented two kayaks for the four of us and went out to a nearby cove in the nature preserve:

The cove had phenomenal swimming. Unfortunately the wind turned against us, making the return journey difficult. My parents even beat us back to harbor!

We also hiked to the next village over (to Manarola).

To get over the steep hill between the towns, the locals essentially built a very long staircase – no switchbacks for us. Here we are part of of the way up:

The views were incredible though.

-Hendrik

Swimming and Snorkeling in the Mediterranean

We spent a great deal of our holiday in Italy swimming and snorkeling in the Mediterranean and chilling on the beach napping or reading. Now that’s my kind of vacation! A week-long vacation seemed like plenty of time to relax, and forget what day of the week it was, but when I went back to work this week, one of my co-workers informed me that it was really more of a long weekend than a proper holiday. The European attitude on summer holidays is do different! I also overheard my boss say to another co-worker, “Three weeks? You might as well take four,” in a completely serious, not passive-aggressive way. 

I also have to comment on how amazing the Mediterranean is, especially in the Cinque Terre where there is a protected marine area. The water is so clear and blue and just the perfect temperature for swimming when the weather is warm. The fish are maybe not as interesting as in tropical areas, but it was still fun to snorkel amongst them. I have to say it certainly beats the frigid water of the Pacific and the tar covered beaches of Santa Barbara. Don’t worry Mediterranean beaches, I’ll be back soon!

2nd time in 5 Terre

Last week we spent several days in the Cinque Terre region of Italy, this time with my parents. We had a wonderful break from the northern European weather, enjoyed the outdoors, and dried our clothes in the local fashion:

As the week goes on and we get back into our rhythm, we’ll post some more photos.

-Hendrik