We were in Poland 2001 - 2005, four wonderful years. What an amazing experience our first post was. We started living in a beautiful house at Ulica Rozana in Mokotow. Near the British elementary school of Noa and Hugo, who were at the time 2,5 and 4,5 years old. Jack and Robin had to go to two other buildings. The house had a few fruit trees in the garden. It was located at a corner which meant a lot of shovelling in winter time! When school moved to another location we decided to move to Vilanow to a house that was really massive. We called it "Palace Noordeinde", we lived in a nice neighbourhood. We decided to have a dog again after our Charlie passed in June 2001. February 2004 Sam, a golden retriever came in our life. He was my 40th birthday gift. He lived with us in 5 countries, could bark in many languages. If he could talk and you would ask him "what's the best country you lived in?" I'm very certain he would have said Germany. He loved swimming, he was in the Starnberger See many times a week.

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We will always think with warmth about Poland. A country with many hidden spots, for example the Mazure, a lake district, two hours north of Warsaw. There are mountains in the south, sea and beaches in the north. There's a place called Hel, it's a peninsula near Gdinia and Gdansk. Very funny if you ask a Polish person where have you been this summer? The answer can be, " I've been to Hel this summer"!

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Warsaw was fun for the kids as well. We had very active Saturdays with loads of baseball at the American School of Warsaw and the children played football too. Robin swam already a lot. Here she started using her second name because with one of the first swimming competitions she participated in, she was placed between the boys. From then onwards when she swam it was Robin-May, just to be sure she was with the correct group.

We dragged them to the golf and we tried a bit of horse riding, but that last one wasn't their thing.

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For the adults there was lots to do for example the expat community in Warsaw organised a lot of Balls or Galas. You had the Pink Ball, Orange Ball, Hash Ball, AFW Ball and our favourite was the Irish Ball. I remember the first time we went, we came home with daylight!

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The children went to the Dutch School once a week on a Wednesday after school till 17:30. I had to pick them up from their own school an hour before school ended and drive them to Konstancin, just outside Warsaw and deliver them in class of the American School. They were the "outside" kids (buitenkinderen), who were in a local school or like our children at the British School of Warsaw.

Rob was treasurer of the Dutch school.

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Back then there wasn't such a thing as TomTom or a navi or google maps. It was old school, with a map next to you in the car. I think that's mainly the reason why I know so well my way in Warsaw. When we moved in 2005 to Munich we had one of the first Tom Tom's but you get very lazy with these things. They bring you from A to B without really knowing which direction you're going.

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November 1st is All Saint's Day, a very important day in Poland. Family gather at cemeteries, light candles and put flowers on the graves for the family members they're missing. In the Netherlands this tradition disappeared.

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