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NL22059

Haarlem, Netherlands

The beach at Bloemendaal

The beach at Bloemendaal

Nationaal Park Zuid-Kennemerland

Nationaal Park Zuid-Kennemerland

Schotse hooglanders in Nationaal Park Zuid-Kennemerland

Schotse hooglanders in Nationaal Park Zuid-Kennemerland

The beach at Bloemendaal

The beach at Bloemendaal

Ready to go

Member since

2022


Usually responds to exchange requests in less than 72 hoursfast replier
Open for exchange
Exchange dates Duration
December 21, 2024 - January 05, 2025 1 weeks

We are open at a Christmas swap for one or two weeks, anywhere. Tempt us with destinations we have never thought of!

April 26, 2025 - May 11, 2025 2 weeks

We would like to visit the Mediterranean: destinations that are too hot to our taste during the summer, but agreeable in the Spring. An interesting city anywhere in Europe would be another possibility.

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Town house in Haarlem, near Amsterdam

Large 225 m2 traditional house in Haarlem, built in 1913. Haarlem is a small historic town on the coast of the North Sea, near Amsterdam (a 15-minute train ride). The 17th century downtown area with its lovely canals is walkable from our home. There is a wide choice of restaurants and shops in town. Museums such as the Frans Hals Museum, Teylers (the oldest museum in the Netherlands, since 1776), various churches, and other historical monuments await culture lovers. For children, play areas, swimming pools and the beach are easy to reach. Staying in our quiet garden may be fun too: there is a dinner table and chairs to enjoy the shadow or sun. Many of our neighbours have children.

The bed in the master bedroom is large (220 by 180 cm; 7 by 6 feet). There are four bedrooms, a living with a piano, a study, a bathroom with shower and bath, and a kitchen with a dinner table. A fast internet connection and a few computers are available for guests. Bringing your own laptop is recommended.

Our bicycles are available for the use of guests: a Koga Miyata with derailleur and high 26-inch frame, a Cannondale ATB, a Gitane citybike, and four all-purpose or city bicycles (three of them regular-sized). Since our youngest son (2008) also becomes tall, we don't have small bikes left, but they may be rented at various shops. There is also a 'bakfiets' (cargo bike), popular among the Dutch for the transport of small children. If we travel by car we may take a few bikes with us.

We have an automatic-shift car (Opel Crossland X) which is available for exchange if we would agree to travel by air or train to the exchange address.
We have checked the box 'no pets', but we don't have problems with a small, well-behaved dog.

We are new at Intervac (member since June, 2022), but we are experienced home exchangers. We started out ten years ago as members of Home for Exchange, which folded in 2020.

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Our Family

  • 2 Adults
  • 3 Children
  • 0 Exchanges made

Occupation

  • philosopher (retired), psychologist

Our Home

  • House Type: House
  • Environment: In the city
  • Bedrooms: 4
  • Bathrooms: 1
  • Sleeping Capacity: 5

In my house

  • Pets - Not allowed
  • Small children - Allowed

Exchange Types

  • Home exchange

Indoor

  • Free internet access
  • Computer available
  • Central heating
  • Toys and games
  • Washing machine
  • Television
  • Piano

Outdoor

  • Garden
  • Balcony
  • Park / playground
  • Bicycles: 10

Facilities

  • No smoking

Our Destination Wish List

  • Open to any destination
  • Greece
  • Spain
  • Italy
  • Austria
  • Switzerland
  • Scandinavia

Spoken Languages

  • English
  • Français
  • Deutsch
  • Dutch

Our Neighbourhood

Nearest Airport: Schiphol / Amsterdam airport -

Occupation

  • philosopher (retired), psychologist

Children

  • Boy - Age: 21
  • Boy - Age: 23
  • Boy - Age: 16

Pets

  • We do not have pets.

About Our Family

Joukje is a clinical psychologist, Sybe a philosopher-psychologist who taught and did research in academia.
The children (3 boys) are 22, 19 and 15 years old and still live with us. They usually travel with us, but sometimes they do their own things. They are students, the youngest goes to school near Haarlem. They like basketball, playing the piano, chess, cycling, swimming at the beach, computers and computer games, and reading. We use our bicycles a lot, for practical purposes like going to school or the train station, but also for exercise, sight-seeing and fun. We love to explore cities on bikes.

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Lifestyle

Over the past ten years, we organized lots of exchanges with families in Italy, Morocco, the USA, France, Switserland, Andorra, Germany and the Netherlands. Almost every year, we have spent summer holidays in the mountains, trekking between huts, making day trips, walking and climbing. We feel sorry that we lost all our reviews when the organisation where we used to be a member, Home-for-Exchange, ceased to exist. Evaluating our 15 to 20 exchanges from our own vantage point, we'd say that 90% were mutually happy experiences.
To sum up our preferences for swaps:
We don't like hot weather; during the summer, we prefer northern countries or the mountains.
We are interested in visiting cities, especially for one or two weeks in spring and autumn holidays. We have swapped with London, Berlin, Rome and Paris, and we would love to return there. We have never visited Madrid, Barcelona, Munchen,
Lisboa, and Athens, and would appreciate invitations.
We'd love to travel to Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece from October to May.

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