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Amsterdam Home Exchange 

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Amsterdam Home Exchange  

For years we hosted International high school students in our home during the school year.  Most of these students students came from Germany.  It came time to take advantage of inexpensive airfare and visit the families of the students we hosted.  Hotels in Europe can add up quickly, so we looked at our home exchange options.  We placed a listing on Global Home Exchange and started sending out inquiries.  We were intrigued by an offer made to our listing from Amsterdam.  This wasn't Germany but would work..  Family of four wanting an exchange starting in early August to our area.  We answered immediately and after a few emails, we settled on some dates that were convenient to both our families.  They wanted an exchange for three weeks, we only wanted 16 days, so we came to a compromise that worked.

We planned our trip, contacted our ex students and found it was only a few hours drive to their homes.

Soon we were off on our first international flight and none of us got a great deal of sleep. From Schiphol airport in Amsterdam a train took us to a little city just outside of Amsterdam and our home away from home.  We soon learned to rely on a wonderful train service throughout the Netherlands.

The two story home was smaller than ours but very clean and spacious.   They had what best could be described as a dream kitchen.  We could only wish we had something this nice.  In the house were several bedrooms, children's books, toys, a computer and English DVD's. There was also a computer in the den that we used to keep in touch.   There was a driveway to park our car rental  and navigating in Europe was more difficult than in North America.  We ended up washing the car daily as birds found a liking to the tree branches above the vehicle, leaving evidence of their frequent visits.

Driving to Germany was easy, the highways and autobahns are terrific.  No border crossing to stop at between the Dutch and German borders, just a sign welcoming us the Germany.    The best part of visiting Germany was visiting our student's families and having tours and dinner with friends in Castles over looking the Rhine valley.

Our visit ended too soon but we came back with many fond memories of Amsterdam, Madurodam, a wonderful model village in Den Hague and several other stops throughout the Netherlands.   We have often seen windmills in pictures or on TV but seeing the real thing was memorable. We traveled to Amsterdam regularly and found it was easy to get around by foot, train or by city bus.

Almost all our meals were at home, we learned to shop at local grocery stores, meat markets and Dutch bakeries and as our Dutch was rather poor, had to guess at what was in some packaging.  As almost everyone could speak some English, we never had difficulty communicating.

Total cost for this trip including airfare for all, car rental and groceries  was less than $2500 for the 16 days.  It did help our budget having friends provide some meals, but we saved a huge amount with a home exchange.  Accommodation cost through the 16 days was zero.

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