Now that we’ve been in the Netherlands for about 18 months, I’m starting to notice things that probably wouldn’t have registered if we’d only stayed a year. One of those things is how the Dutch think about brands. Unsurprisingly, Dutch brands are very… Dutch. Which is to say: aggressively straightforward. For example, one of the main hotel chains here is called—brace yourself— Hotel . That’s it. Just Hotel. They do have a toucan logo next to the name so you know it’s their  H

Now that we've mostly stopped flinching at phantom New Year's Eve fireworks, it's time for the next dramatic Amsterdam event : snow. ❄️ On average, Amsterdam gets about five days of snow a year, with a grand total of what meteorologists lovingly call “negligible" accumulation (which is Dutch for "it fell, then immediately gave up and became water"). This year, however, is not average. On the 3rd, we got a light dusting. It was the normal amount, but strangely, it didn’t disa

Welcome to the first installment of 2026! We had a great trip to California (and Phoenix and Vegas) and found ourselves back in the Netherlands for New Year’s. You may recall that last year we were in India (for a reminder of our very amusing vow renewal, click here ), so this year marked our first New Year’s in the Netherlands. And… whew…were we unprepared. Our first hint that things might be different came courtesy of our next-door neighbor. When we ran into her she casuall

Happy holidays everyone!  We hope you all are enjoying a fun and festive holiday season. A quick update from us. We are now settled back in Amsterdam after a whirlwind summer of selling everything in California and having to find a new place to live in Holland on short notice.  Good news - we bought a house, transplanted our cat, received our shipment from California, and are well on our way to redoing the yard in our new house. Alex continues to thrive at the international

A couple of weeks ago, our giant shipment from the US finally arrived. Side note: the shippers clearly mistook our only piece of furniture for a stress-test dummy, because they broke it. Thanks, guys! Anyway, among the truly essential, life-sustaining items we shipped were peanut butter M&Ms. You can find the basic, sensible M&Ms here: regular, peanut, crispy. You can even get the bizarrely terrible peanut butter and jelly ones if you are willing to travel to the UK (seriousl

Let’s take a quick break from the fall sports lineup and our travel blog to revisit our new house; which, for the record, is now officially smarter than we are. In addition to our Arabic-speaking dishwasher (who politely refused to speak English) and the gold bathroom fixtures that are now worth more than Bitcoin, we’re beginning to understand the quirks of our high-tech habitat. Let’s start with a short list of our own personal “Internet of Things”, which, at this point, cou

You might remember last April when we were all set for a grand cruise to Istanbul and Ephesus. Naturally, fate had other plans, which is how we ended up in Paris instead . There’s a saga here involving broken ships, frantic travel planning and at least one croissant so good it made us briefly forgive the universe. So, demonstrating the loyalty of golden retrievers, we rebooked the exact same cruise for next April, only to find out (in the middle of the “sell-everything-and-le

Hello, sports fans! Welcome to the thrilling 2025 Fall Middle School sports season at the International School of Amsterdam. For those of...

Before the grand tour of our newest home base, I wanted to address a burning question from Greg G on my last post. Greg wondered if I use...

When Life Gives You Lemons, Buy a House? As you may recall, we were going to rent for the next five years, but our Amsterdam landlord had...

Hello from the Land of Gouda, bikes, and tasteless fruit! The Eynon family has officially returned to the Netherlands after surviving 6+...

Well, well, well…look who’s (barely) survived six weeks back in America. If you’re wondering how it’s going, imagine running a marathon...

Well, it’s official: we’ve survived three weeks back in California, which is about 20 days longer than I thought we’d last before...

Today marks exactly one year since we packed our bags, waved goodbye to California, and embarked on our grand European adventure.  As I...

So, last Friday, Alex had yet another day off school (because apparently Dutch holidays are like sprinkles on a cupcake—the world gets...

Ah, Italy. The land of pasta, passion, and a proud tradition of making absolutely nothing work—at least, not in the way you’d expect....

Ah, November through February: that magical time of year when American parents get to play “Who Wants to Be a Childcare Provider?” on...

So, Alex has joined a Dutch soccer team. Or, as I’m now legally required to call it, a "football club." For those of you in the Bay Area,...

For Alex’s spring break, we had big plans: a cruise from Bari, Italy, to Athens, Ephesus, Istanbul, and Corfu. You know, the kind of trip...

After leaving Sytske and Paul, I wandered into the main train station in downtown Kyiv. I was about 90 minutes early, so I spent time in...