Cultural exchange, exploring in variety of nature near Amsterdam / Utrecht, Netherlands

Detalles

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  Descripción

  Goal:
  Cultural Exchange is the goal in our hosting offer.
  I invite you to read below what we are able to offer to you.
  Many other workawayers from over the world visited before you and left their feedback, so you can get an idea from them aswell.
  
  Area:
  We live in a beautiful area with lots of variation in nature and culturallly interesting area's to visit.
  Like forests, lakes, biking- and hikingtrails, castles, fortified cities and waterways.
  Biking trails and walking-trails are starting next to our house.
  You can also enjoy the lakes close to us; with rental kayaks, sailing boats or subs ( take a dog to join you).
  Going there on bike takes appr. 30-40 min. from our house: there are many cycling-paths crossing fields and forests or on the dykes following the rivers. There's also a bike-trailer for 1 dog available to be attached behind a bike.
  Spring and summer is the time for biking, hiking, swimming, exploring nature. It's beautiful light green everywhere and it smells like fresh grass and flowers.
  Netherlands are famous for their blooming bulb-fields in April/May and beautiful skies.
  It's worth to visit enjoy them and see the Keukenhof and bike around in that area.
  There are bikes available to explore the area.
  And there is very good public transport nearby.
  
  We live in a small city with a next-door bus-connection (1 min. walk) to the trainstation; every half-hour schedule. Therefore Amsterdam, Utrecht and other area's are easy reachable with public transport.
  We live in a typicall dutch neighbourhood on walking distance from the stores and terraces or nature to relax or be on yourself.
  If you want to hire a car to explore the Netherlands, there is more then enough free parking available next to the house.
  
  Nearby:
  There is an interesting typical dutch grain mill that you can visit on walking distance from us and close to the mill you can enjoy the old town-centre with beautiful terraces for seeing interesting peoples, enjoy a good beer, coffee or eat the well known typical dutch poffertjes famous icecream, etc...The fortified city Naarden is worth to visit for walking over the fortifications, there are interesting museums nearby and a bikeboat. Utrecht is a beautiful old student-town nearby. There is a worldfamous garden from Piet Oudolf close to Utrecht.....etc,.....
  
  Utrechtse Heuvelrug is an old historic forest-area with low rolling hills that started in the glacier time; It offers many beautiful trails to explore hiking and biking in May/June when the leaves / ferns are light green.
  Also the sand dunes and blooming purple heather in August are a treat to stroll through.
  
  This is us:
  Bien, Elko, Doenja, Ch'aska and some more.
  Used to travelling, free nature-camping and international cultural exchange for many years and I love to interact and connect with all kinds of peoples with an open respectful honest mind.
  Sportive, active, creative naturelovers, former gymteacher and host for many children, young adults and peoples from over the world also for CISV.
  Our household:
  3 Wonderfull adult children around, who you probably will meet. They have been travelling for cultural exchanges themselves several times.
  + 3 BIG GERMAN SHEPHERD DOGS who respectfully live together under one roof. We love our animals and we expect you to treat them with dignity. They're honest animals who will respect people with a good sincere hart and love for animals and nature.
  
  For the dogs:
  It's important that you are able to CONNECT with animals/dogs to feel at ease here (don't under-estimate!!)
  You need to have an understanding of dog-behavior in a herd, preferably Shepherds, and what they need.
  You can get a good idea about what it takes to make a good connection by looking to Youtube-films.
  You don't learn it overnight (!!); it takes love, being able to respond at the moment from insight and calmness.
  PLEASE BE AWARE:
  Liking animals / dogs doesn't mean that you can cope with living together with 3 big shepherds in a moderate house. So realize that you can connect with that. The dogs will be around you and close to you all the time.
  Care-taking of my dogs is not necessary. If it gives you pleasure, you are always welcome to spent time together with the dogs.They are well trained and love peoples. If you want to walk with the dogs, you have to be physically and mentally strong for coping with strong dogs.
  
  Offer:
  I always show my guests around and will try my best to give you a good time.
  It's the concept of exchanging that made me choose to being a host.
  So I'm very curious what you can bring from yourself that makes it interesting for both of us.
  
  In our simple modest home I can offer you a bed in a private bedroom and a shared bathroom.
  We cook healthy tasteful meals to share; always breakfast, in between snacks and 1 meal on helping days. On helping days I provide healthy tasteful meals; I love cooking , reduce my meat-consumption, lower my plastic-use and koolhydrate/sugar-use, but I'm not vegetarian/vegan.
  If you love cooking yourself, you are welcome to cook together, do suggestions or cook yourself for the shared meal : love to taste typical food/meals from your country :)
  There is a BBQ ready to be used and we love to put on the fireplace and talk together or stare in it with our own thoughts, do a board game, make some music, read a book, etc...
  
  On free days we are used to have breakfast together (if you want) and after that Ww-ers usually leave to explore the area, go biking, visit a nearby town, museum, nature-area according to their interests. During those free days Ww-ers have their meals elsewhere. Most of the times, Ww-ers meeting each others in my hosting offer enjoy exploring together; feel free to ask for exploring-suggestions...there is plenty to do.
  There are books and maps to inform you about, trails, biking routes, historic places to visit etc...
  
  PLEASE READ CAREFULLY;
  We look for workawayers who have handy hands and have DIY-pleasure!
  Workawayers who bring their own skills + enjoy wood connections + know how to use tools. Who have joy in putting things together, solving a puzzle and enjoy finishing a project with the kick of celebrating a good result together.
  
  The working hours are reasonable according to the Workaway-principles. Planning your helping hours will always be done together to what fits with the expected weather and your wishes for exploring-time.
  
  The Netherlands are rainy sometimes....so the outside tasks can be done according to the weather predictions. When the weather is good, we live outdoors mostly.
  You need a rain/windjacket in the NL's :)
  
  for the Hosting:
  I'd rather not have to mention the 2 following issues, but it's IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO KNOW and hopefully a no-brainer;
  We do not use drugs.; if you're used to that and wish to, it would be better to look for another host. The dogs will sense it and it will be a reason to stop hosting you. Sometimes just a joint is not what I mean with this. That's something to talk about. Smoking can be accepted outside the house keeping distance to us. But addiction and frequent drug-use is impossible here.
  
  For our hosting offer is based on a mutual exchange in contacts, we are gladly hosting people who limit their use of social media to when they are on there own and after helping hours and social meals. We are aware of the necessary use of mobile phones, I-pads etc... as we use them ourselves too. We are looking for WW-ers who are seriously looking for exchanging cultural backgrounds, foods, etc... by being in contact and having meaningful conversations.
  After a the day It's totally understandable that you want some me-time and/or time to explore....you can take a bike or public transport to discover the area.
  If you're just looking for a cheap place to stay, It's probably not a good match.
  
  Helping hours: average 4-5 hours a day for 5 days a week. I'm flexible about the times en we can plan it together per day. If you want to work a full day for a full day of for exploring it's possible. On half days 2 meals are provided and the 3rd meal is in your exploring-time. On full days 3 meals are provided. I love to cook, we eat together and you can join cooking or suggest to cook for us. Suggestions are always welcome. And I love to eat the typical dishes from where you come from, so feel free to cook. I 'd love to learn about your country-food.
  Evenings can be spent together and its normal to respect each others wish for me-/quiet-time after a busy day. In the evenings I have to prepare for my work on sunday-evenings and wednesday-evenings
  
  We normally have a video call with workawayers who are interested to feel if there is a click.
  
  In return for your serious help, I'm gladly willing to show you around and take you to special places so you will have a good idea of the Netherlands and our culture.
  In our W-away-hosting-contact we are looking for considerate, honest people who like to connect and contribute to each other.
  You will find a warm welcome here with interest in who you are and for your travelling plans.
  We're used to work hard and joyfully share the thrill of the accomplishment with shared meals of good food/drinks/ candles and a burning fireplace or a picnic near the waterfront or in the woods telling eachother stories of our lives with the animals near to us, play ball, swim in the lake, etc...
  
  If you'd like to help us out for some hours and stay with us, feel welcome to just get in touch by telling who you are, what you can do to help us, what experience you have to offer and what you're looking for.
  
  If you have any questions for a possible stay; feel free to ask :)
  We will respond shortly ;).

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  Tipos de ayuda y oportunidades de aprendizaje

  Construcción y bricolaje

  Ayuda doméstica

  Mantenimiento general
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  Intercambio cultural y oportunidades de aprendizaje

  Your possible benefit from our cultural exchange can be, that you have a typical dutch experience in a typical dutch neighbourhood with very good connections to explore the wellknown dutch thing to visit, like f.i. the City of Amsterdam /Rijksmuseum and other museums in Amsterdam, the mills, the typical landscapes to bike through on yourself or together with us, and a place to stay with people who can speak several languages and can tell you about and help you with exploring The Netherlands.
  Being in touch with house-animals (3 big dogs and a cat) and having some time in your travel to meet, exchange cultures and practise/learn languages. It will suit you if you know about dogbehaviour.
  
  On non-workingdays most workawayers go out exploring and take their meal somewhere.
  I can teach you about gardening, soils, planting, herbs, plants, pruning, wild eatable plants and mushrooms, etc...
  I can help you learn dutch language and dog-bodylanguage
  Further If you like it, we can show you around, let you meet friends and family, visit cultural heritage, visit University-area's to meet students, help you plan or find information on what you look for or want to visit, aswell as learn you what eatable plants you can find in nature and how you can use them.
  You can make a trip to the beaches of the westcoast, visit the Keukenhof in bulb-season (April/May; really beautifull!)) , walk the Waddenzee with low tide (=cultural heritage), combine that with visiting the beautiful islands in the north, visit historical cities around, visit many beautiful beautifull museums, make a canal-tour in the Amsterdam Canals, go canoeing or waterbiking in Utrecht, etc.....
  These are suggestions to concider when you are looking for a host in the Netherlands. It will be very inspiring to learn from your background and travel experiences and I will be thankfull and thrilled for your honest help in accomplishing some cores that will remind me daily on our positive exchange in our contacts!

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  Ayuda

  This 2025-season I plan on making some changes in my gardenshed: would appreciate some help.
  You can enjoy workaway-tasks with woodconnections, sewing fabrics, touching op used upholstery, spinning wool. I have some bags of sheep-/alpacawool that can be prepared for spinning on my spinning wheel.
  I'm used to talk things through, start together and make a plan which parts you can work on yourself or with other workawayers.
  For the help I 'd be grateful for I made a list consisting of short tasks for 1 or several days.
  You can choose what appeals to you and what fits with your qualities.
  In a video call we can talk about this more.
  Some examples to choose from
  - sewing
  - spinning
  - re-arranging attic
  - reorganizing the shed to a working-place (bookshelves, lamps, valve bench, table)
  - connecting a drawer to the cabinet-door in the kitchen
  - fastening 3 corrugated profiles
  - putting some stones around planting beds
  - adjusting a climbing construction for grapes
  - creating a mini-library from leftover wood for people to take free books
  - little help in the garden with seeding/planting and cutting plants
  
  I'm an experienced DIY-er myself and have fun in working together with others who also enjoy creating solutions and putting things together from used materials from the perspective of sustainability.
  So Ww-ers who are looking for a cultural exchange combined with helping out on tasks that require working with your hands, making things, using tools and be creative are invited to react.
  It makes me really happy every time we work on a DIY-project together; it gives me pleasure seeing peoples work with joy on their own craftsmanship and I really enjoy all the memories left behind in the results that surrounds me :) Even after years those memories bring a smile on my face and it's wonderful when workawayers return and visit again. Feels like precious contacts and almost as family sometimes.

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  Idiomas

  Idiomas hablados
  Inglés: Fluido
  Holandés: Fluido
  Alemán: Intermedio
  Francés: Intermedio
  Español: Principiante
  Italiano: Principiante

  Este anfitrión ofrece intercambio de idiomas
  Este anfitrión ha indicado que está interesado en compartir su idioma o aprender otro.
  Ponte en contacto con él para obtener más información.
  
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  Alojamiento

  You will have a bed to sleep in with fresh bedware in your own room.
  There will be a healthy breakfast with typical dutch and fresh ingredients starting the morning.
  We always have Greek Youghurt, fresh cheese, very tasty dutch bio-farmer cheese, fruits, nuts, peanutbutter, chocolate hail, homemade bio- jams, bio-honey. Everyday there will be a coffee-break between working-hours.
  After the helping hours/cores, you will ofcourse have your own free time to explore The Netherlands and the area. Bikes are available aswell as a busconnection 1 minute walk from our house (every half hour)
  You can use our shared bathroom considering, that you allign your time of use with the schedule of the peoples living in the house, and leave it as clean as it was when you started using it.
  Washing-machine+soap, kitchen are available and we assume that you consult the owners for the time of use so that is fits in the daily routines. Naturally you leave them clean and in the same shape after use and you are careful with the things in the house.
  
  For other wishes....we will try to make things right for you so you will have a positive memorable stay with us:)!

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  Algo más...

  Furthermore;
  Distances are small here and the local busses/trains are good and frequent. Our country is very safe to travel on your own and most people speak excellent English to help you on the way when you need some help. Travel-schedules of public transport are pretty accurate.You can hire bikes, canoes, waterbikes easily on many locations in thearea. There is kitesurfing and windsurfing on the coasts and sailing/canoeing on the lakes. Everywhere there are bikingpaths separated from the roads (not in the cities).
  Our house has very good connections for bus-, train-, cycling and hikingroutes next-door at 1 min. walk. We live within 30 min. car-distance from the airport Schiphol and with the train you can travel straight to Schiphol (main airport near Amsterdam).
  Our small town is situated in the middle of varied different kind of landscapes; forests, heather, meadows, lakes are all close by (biking-distance within an hour). The shops (grossery, medical, bakery, market, etc...are close-by within 15 min. walkingdistance. There are lots of interesting things to explore nearby and when you want to vitit the bigger cities we have good connections to do that on daytrips. If we're on the road and can take you somewhere on the way, you're welcome to come with us so we can drop you at some point or pick you up later. If you're interested, you're welcome to make trips/walks together with the dogs.
  Did you know the Netherlands has an very intreaging system of ancient waterworks, fortifications and tunnels to protect our country? It just is declared as a historical cultural Unesc heritage. And you probably would love the cultural heritage nature-area of de Waddenzee, where you can walk over from the main land to some islands when the tide is low....very special experience :) Or join a sailingtrip on a botter?
  See you!

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  Un poco más de información

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    Acceso a Internet

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    Acceso a Internet limitado

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    Tenemos animales

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    Somos fumadores

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    Puede alojar familias

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  Puede acoger a nómadas digitales

  There are several very interesting flex-worker places very nearby on biking distance. Others did that before you and loved to work there.

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  Espacio para aparcar autocaravanas

  I have a parkingplace near my house where a small campervan can be parked.

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  ¿Cuántos voluntarios puedes hospedar?

  Dos

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