Farewell to The Netherlands
Having decided to retire at the University of Amsterdam and to move to Barcelona, several things had to be done: we had to arrange the move of our belongings to Barcelona, to sell our flat in The Hague and we had to determine how to say farewell in Amsterdam. As we would not be so often in the Netherlands anymore, we also planned to participate in a big family meeting that would take place this year.
How to move our belongings?
Early in the year 2005 we discussed in our house in The Hague with our friends, Henk and Evelien Stronkhorst, this question. Looking out of the window of our flat Henk said: “You can buy a big boat, dock the boat in the water in front of your house, load it with all your belongings and we can sail along the canals and rivers to Spain”. That was indeed possible but how could we pass the Pyrenees? One solution would be the option chosen in the movie "Fitzcarraldo" where with the help of 1100 Indians a steamship was pulled over a mountain in the Amazon region. That would be the heroic solution but I suggested a simpler solution , namely, where the Rhône enters the Mediterranean Sea we could sail to Barcelona”. Before Evelien and Irmtraud became nervous about the idea that we really wanted to do this, we suggested that we first should try out if we would like to stay for a longer time on a boat. We agreed to make a boat trip in the South of France. Henk organized the trip in a nice way as you can see below.
How to move our belongings?
Early in the year 2005 we discussed in our house in The Hague with our friends, Henk and Evelien Stronkhorst, this question. Looking out of the window of our flat Henk said: “You can buy a big boat, dock the boat in the water in front of your house, load it with all your belongings and we can sail along the canals and rivers to Spain”. That was indeed possible but how could we pass the Pyrenees? One solution would be the option chosen in the movie "Fitzcarraldo" where with the help of 1100 Indians a steamship was pulled over a mountain in the Amazon region. That would be the heroic solution but I suggested a simpler solution , namely, where the Rhône enters the Mediterranean Sea we could sail to Barcelona”. Before Evelien and Irmtraud became nervous about the idea that we really wanted to do this, we suggested that we first should try out if we would like to stay for a longer time on a boat. We agreed to make a boat trip in the South of France. Henk organized the trip in a nice way as you can see below.
This was a lot of fun but afterward we decided not to move our belongings by boat to Spain because the trip would be too long for all of us.
A family meeting
The Saris family organized a reunion for all children and grant children of Willem"s parents. His parents had 5 children which all had a partner. We had only a limited input in this family given that we had decided not to have children. Willem´s brothers and sisters compensated for this reduction in reproduction by having all at least two children. In this way, one gets a family meeting with a lot of people. Because we have missed several meetings of the family, we had to admit that we didn´t know the names of all these children and grandchildren. It was nice that my father could also join us and help us to get the names of all our family members. Together with him we went to this meeting. It was a nice way to say goodbye for a while to the family.
A family meeting
The Saris family organized a reunion for all children and grant children of Willem"s parents. His parents had 5 children which all had a partner. We had only a limited input in this family given that we had decided not to have children. Willem´s brothers and sisters compensated for this reduction in reproduction by having all at least two children. In this way, one gets a family meeting with a lot of people. Because we have missed several meetings of the family, we had to admit that we didn´t know the names of all these children and grandchildren. It was nice that my father could also join us and help us to get the names of all our family members. Together with him we went to this meeting. It was a nice way to say goodbye for a while to the family.
My farewell party
Although I did not have a very good relationship with the University of Amsterdam, it did not mean that there were no people who thought that a farewell party should be organized. I have cooperated with many students at the University of Amsterdam. Some of them organized a meeting for me to say goodbye to my Dutch colleagues. It was nice that so many people came. There were many of my prior students and colleagues from the time at the Free University, students and colleagues I worked with at the UvA, members of the Ph.D program in psychometrics and sociometrics (IOPS). Besides Hans Peter Kriesi (Switzerland) and Jon Krosnick (USA) were invited for this meeting. Of course my family and my skating friends were also invited together with the Loet andHenny Wassing with whom we shared a nice time while we lived in the Meander flat. Irmtraud made a video of the meeting. It is clear that during the presentations she paid only attention to me but at the reception she only gave attention to our guests. It was a pleasure to see so many people I had worked with in the past. I was wondering whether this was the end of our contacts?
Although I did not have a very good relationship with the University of Amsterdam, it did not mean that there were no people who thought that a farewell party should be organized. I have cooperated with many students at the University of Amsterdam. Some of them organized a meeting for me to say goodbye to my Dutch colleagues. It was nice that so many people came. There were many of my prior students and colleagues from the time at the Free University, students and colleagues I worked with at the UvA, members of the Ph.D program in psychometrics and sociometrics (IOPS). Besides Hans Peter Kriesi (Switzerland) and Jon Krosnick (USA) were invited for this meeting. Of course my family and my skating friends were also invited together with the Loet andHenny Wassing with whom we shared a nice time while we lived in the Meander flat. Irmtraud made a video of the meeting. It is clear that during the presentations she paid only attention to me but at the reception she only gave attention to our guests. It was a pleasure to see so many people I had worked with in the past. I was wondering whether this was the end of our contacts?
To Spain
After the boat trip in the South of France we went by car back to Barcelona. On the way we stopped in the first catalonian town, Seu de Urgel, just across the French border. It was immediately clear that we were in a different world. Our new world? There was a nice “rambla”, a market, a big cathedral and young people who were singing together a song which everybody seemed to know.
,The enthusiasm of these kids, singing a song they all know, showed us that we entered a really different culture. This made us think that we probably had made the right choice at this moment in our life to move to Spain.
Another interesting question that kept us busy was: whether we would retire in this nice new world and enjoy a pleasant life or we would look for new challenging scientific work?
Another interesting question that kept us busy was: whether we would retire in this nice new world and enjoy a pleasant life or we would look for new challenging scientific work?
