April 5th, 2013

...now browsing by day

 

Friday April 5th. I have a bank card!!

Friday, April 5th, 2013

The third try was a charm. The FedEx envelope was delivered today. The BofA sent it out on Wednesday. They have been forgiven and back in my favor. Also in another phone call with the BofA today I found a way to wire money to my dollar account here without having to risk getting a new Safe Pass to end up in the same black hole that the previous two bank cards ended up in. My gut feeling is that they are in a desk drawer of some sleuth in the Dutch Custom/Immigration service. I just checked my passport and there is no evidence that I ever left Holland since I arrived here over a year ago. And that means that I am here illegally, beyond the 90 (I believe) day limit, without a residence permit. When I left here for the boat in Greece, in April 2012 I was never stamped out at the airport. And not stamped in at a number of border crossings. I visited Greece, Turkey, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy, Malta, France, Belgium and back into Holland. (Several of these countries twice) And the only stamps in my passport are Croatia and Montenegro… In many place there are no border posts. So, if my blogs go missing you might want to check with the Dutch Marechaussee.

My nephew Jacob van Ommen, named after me, is visiting from Berlin. I last saw him in 2003. His partner, Maren, her son Tobias and his daughter Lara (the two will be both 16 this year) came also. They came on Wednesday and are flying back tomorrow. I showed them my (and his father’s) old neighborhood and explained some of the logistics around the address as to where his grandparents and neighbors were arrested back in April 1944. And the nearby address where Anne Frank had lived. Except for a few sad looking frozen crocuses there is little to show of what Holland usually looks like at this time of the year. The temperature remains just around freezing and a nasty cold wind discourages the tourists.