Our House - Amstelveen, Amsterdam

 

When we came to Amsterdam back in 2008, I was prepared to dislike the place, it must be the same as London and I hated London. London is nice to visit, but it's not a place to stay. I should know, afterall I spent almost 7 years in the United Kingdom, most of it in London. It was congested, dirty and cold. I hated cold then and I hate it now.

It was winter, so everything was so dull, cold and gloomy. Everywhere I looked, it was dark, grey and colourless, even the sky was grey. How I miss my hot and green country. Then, spring came and I started to see flowers and bright green young leaves along the way to school. I realised then, that there were actually lots of trees along the way and everywhere. I never really realised their presence before because they didn't have any leaves !!! How wonderful !!! Funny how a little bit of green and colours make you change your outlook of a place. I started to see how nice the place was. Everywhere there were canals and there were wild ducks and swans happily paddling in the water. Only then I realised that there were actually lots of little parks in my neighbourhood !!! And just a stone's throw away, there was a large grazing field, you could see cows, sheep and horses happily eating grass. On your lucky day, the cows would be grazing on our side of the field, only a little canal separated us. It was beautiful and peaceful, we hardly heard any traffic.... I loved the area, I love it still :)

 

Cows grazing happily in the fields

Ducks everywhere

The grazing field and the canal are only 3 minute walk from the house. Whenever we had visitors, we would take them around the house, to the field and canal, to feed the ducks. They all agreed that it was a nice and quiet place.



Sunrise - walking distance from home

Within a few minutes drive from the house, there was Amstel River.

Amstel River

In winter, the area was so beautiful... but that deserves another entry on its own.