After so many years in Norway, 45 years, I am finally back in the motherland. From snow and blistering sun, I am back to rain, fog and sturdy winds, today even so much as windcraft with a strenght of 11m/sec. But the sun appeared as to say: hey I am back too....
Reason was that something bad happened at the University Hospital and even more bad stuff twice the weeks after. So Sebastiaan and Veronica put their now wise heads together and asked if I could think about returning to the motherland. After all I had grandchildren there too and the medical aid was as good as in Norway if not better...well, the contemplating work started and finally I decided to leave Norway.
Veronica took care of my new great flat, a home physician, a pedicure and above all a good medical insurance. In my homecountry the general medical insurance had to be abandoned because of lack of state money. In Norway it was of course the contrary. Sebastiaan and Bart my son in law decided to put their hands together to "evict" the old man form the country he had served for 45 years and they did well. I will never forget the washingmachine 60kgs heavy which should be transported up the stairs 3 meters long and at an inclination of at least 45 degrees. Bart had with him special ropes that could be used and it was ashtonishing to see they lifted the monster up the stairs as it was a piece of cloth...lol...
We were armed with all the necessary documents when passing the boarder in Sweden and entering the EU but....nobody was there, not a single person. We just entered the EU at will....from Sweden with the ferry to Denmark and after that to Germany and the north of the Netherlands and all of a sudden I realized that this was HOME!!!! Strange feeling and I didnt feel ok and unfortunately I showed it as well, a thing my 2 guys did not deserve at all. And in addition my creditcard of the Rabobank didnt work when I had to pee, so....Forgotten to activate it...see all of you tomorrow, emotions begin to creep onto me, so...
So now I am back again....here on my Wolfpack website...
On the pic the following homecoming story: with the ferries from Scandinavia on the right(this time only the Batavia) through the water ways and meeting Bernadettes granduncle Lely the water-engineer who pumped up the new land from the IJsselmeer via the Markermeer to the townhall and finally to MY PLACE which is the big beautiful building...Peter is finally home again...This lithography is made by Willem Mast de Gooijer, a Dutch artist...
In addition to a lot of help, I got good sound advice from Marjolijn that really got me through the first days. I didnt feel sorry for myself, so it worked. But it was a queer feeling to enter MY flat, twice as big as my old one in Norway. But God what a rich appartment it was. Villeroy & Boch in the badroom and in the 2d toilet, separate build-in oven and microwave, and....a DISHWASHER!!!! and what to do with that one, I am just myself here...lol...we'll see about that...
I was glad that we had the main important thing in the building: an ELEVATOR!!!!!. Veronica was my contact when looking around in the flat and she send me a picture of that elevator and...I was happy right away. Furthermore she showed me how to use the videostuff of my mobile phone and I got a video from my empty flat...impressive...When finished packing the stuff in the transporter, of course a Mercedes, Sebastiaan asked me if this was all and I said yes. And then he smiled and opened a drawer...and what about your photocamera and videocamera...almost forgotten...I was ashamed...really...
But well, here I live now and after 9 months I feel "kind of" at home, but it's sometimes not that easy. After all, you dont wipe out 45 years of history from my life in Norway. And I still have my friend Liv living up there. Today it was -25degr.C.....and I miss the crispy winterair, the snow and the cold...because winter like up there I will never ever see here...thats for sure. But when the sun shines everything is ok again, like today.
Living on the 3d floor(which is the 4th from the ground which is numbered 0) 1 cm to the left of the streetlight which is, yes you are right, constructed in an special angle to withstand the winds here...clever isnt it?!!
I live in Batavia Haven(=Port), a part of Lelystad at the seaside. Close to Batavia Stad(Stad=City), a fashion outlet kind of compound. So, just a womencity, all of it...and all the big brands are there as Gucci etc. But it is ALWAYS sale throughout the year and that means 30-50% discount and sometimes you see the signs: Extra Sale now off 20% and that means in total 50-70% discount. So ladies, you know where to go to...
70% of the customers are foreigners most of them Germans. The only place in Holland where they havent been in 40-45!!! Because it then still was a lake....lololol...But I often sit and rest in the City next to a couple of concrete norwegian whales and get frightened when I hear something else than german...lol...but well, this time they pay for what they take away...
Will slowly fill up the blog with pictures of Lelystad and Batavia Haven and BS(=Batavia Stad=town). You should all take a trip to us over here. In april next year Lelystad Airport will open to help Schiphol with the overflow of passengers there. So then you can take the plane where ever you live and land almost...on my doorstep...only 10 minutes to me and BS.
And this is a pic from the backside of my building facing the smallboats. No, none of them is mine...
You see that the architecture is very special but well, you see it as well in the Center of Lelystad. Some people do not like it but after a while you see the beauty in it.