Moving twice
Several things had happened in 2000 which had their effects on our life in the coming years. Important was that Willem did not have to teach at the University anymore. In the next academic year 2001/2 Willem would also be free of teaching because of the grant for working with a research group in the NIAS in Wassenaar, close to The Hague. Wassenaar was difficult to reach from Amstelveen. Even by car, it would take one and a half hour travelling twice a day. That was too much, therefore we were wondering if we could not find a place to stay in The Hague.
Around Christmas I had given a lecture in Barcelona and experienced that I could have lunch outside in Barcelona just as well as we were accustomed to do during the winter in Tenerife. The advantage of Barcelona was that it is a big town with a lot of cultural activities and that some of our best friends lived there. In Tenerife were only tourists and we had not made new friends there. We considered the possibility to change our flat in Tenerife for a flat in Barcelona. The question that remained was whether Irmtraud would have allergy problems again in Barcelona because that was why we went to Tenerife.
Around Christmas I had given a lecture in Barcelona and experienced that I could have lunch outside in Barcelona just as well as we were accustomed to do during the winter in Tenerife. The advantage of Barcelona was that it is a big town with a lot of cultural activities and that some of our best friends lived there. In Tenerife were only tourists and we had not made new friends there. We considered the possibility to change our flat in Tenerife for a flat in Barcelona. The question that remained was whether Irmtraud would have allergy problems again in Barcelona because that was why we went to Tenerife.
Amstelveen or The Hague?
Willem had to prepare for his stay in the NIAS with his research group from September 2001 till July 2002. The NIAS was in a little town Wassenaar close to The Hague. Most foreign participants had a sleeping place at the NIAS or in the surroundings. In order not to travel too long or to be separated, we thought that we could look for a place to stay in The Hague. We found out that it was very easy and relative cheap to buy a flat with all necessary comfort close to one of the stations of The Hague which was convenient to go to Amsterdam or to Schiphol.
This sounds like a strange decision if it was only for one year but we thought that it could be a nice place for a change. We enjoyed The Hague a lot: the government buildings, the museums, the cultural activities, the cinemas with interesting films and we only had to take a tram to go to the beach of Scheveningen. That could also be a solution for the allergy of Irmtraud. Willem could go on his bicycle to the NIAS for the meetings which was a good exercise and with the tram he could go to the skating rink of The Hague were he could skate with the seniors in the morning hours.
Tenerife or Barcelona?
In order to determine whether we would like to live in Barcelona and to test whether Irmtraud would have problems with allergy in Barcelona we asked our friends, Joan Manuel Batista and Albert Satorra in Barcelona if we could stay for a longer period in one of their houses in the summer. Both offered us this possibility and so we could stay nearly a full month in Barcelona to explore the possibilities of living there.
Going by car to Barcelona, we visited different famous places in Catalunya such as Cadaques, Sant Pere de Rodes, Costa Brava, Ampuriabrava, Girona and Besalu. It was impressive.
Willem had to prepare for his stay in the NIAS with his research group from September 2001 till July 2002. The NIAS was in a little town Wassenaar close to The Hague. Most foreign participants had a sleeping place at the NIAS or in the surroundings. In order not to travel too long or to be separated, we thought that we could look for a place to stay in The Hague. We found out that it was very easy and relative cheap to buy a flat with all necessary comfort close to one of the stations of The Hague which was convenient to go to Amsterdam or to Schiphol.
This sounds like a strange decision if it was only for one year but we thought that it could be a nice place for a change. We enjoyed The Hague a lot: the government buildings, the museums, the cultural activities, the cinemas with interesting films and we only had to take a tram to go to the beach of Scheveningen. That could also be a solution for the allergy of Irmtraud. Willem could go on his bicycle to the NIAS for the meetings which was a good exercise and with the tram he could go to the skating rink of The Hague were he could skate with the seniors in the morning hours.
Tenerife or Barcelona?
In order to determine whether we would like to live in Barcelona and to test whether Irmtraud would have problems with allergy in Barcelona we asked our friends, Joan Manuel Batista and Albert Satorra in Barcelona if we could stay for a longer period in one of their houses in the summer. Both offered us this possibility and so we could stay nearly a full month in Barcelona to explore the possibilities of living there.
Going by car to Barcelona, we visited different famous places in Catalunya such as Cadaques, Sant Pere de Rodes, Costa Brava, Ampuriabrava, Girona and Besalu. It was impressive.
We went with Germa Coenders to a performance of the Requiem of Bernstein in Peralada and in Barcelona, it was a great pleasure to meet our friends again. When they went away we visited for the first time La Fiesta de Gracia and the Rambla Poble Nou.
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All these experiences made an overwhelming impression on us and what was even more important, Irmtraud never had allergy problems during our stay. This made us seriously think about the possibilities to move from Tenerife to Barcelona.
Mercedes, the wife of Joan Manuel, recommended us to look at apartment buildings that were constructed close to the beach in Poble Nou.
Mercedes, the wife of Joan Manuel, recommended us to look at apartment buildings that were constructed close to the beach in Poble Nou.
We saw two construction sites, one was a normal apartment building, the other a luxurious closed complex with high apartment buildings but with a garden, a swimming pool, gymnasium and tennis courts. The building of this complex was just started while the simpler one was nearly finished. We informed about the price of the latter one and it seemed to be affordable, therefore we took an option on one of these apartments. This meant that we also decided to sell our flat in Tenerife. With our car full of bottles of Spanish cava we went back to The Netherlands. This happened during the summer of the year 2000.