Author: Mark Dizon
June 1 - 15, 2022
We have arrived in Europe! We left the United States the afternoon of June 9 and landed in Amsterdam, Netherlands the morning of June 10. It has finally happened! I feel like I have been waiting for this moment for the longest time and we are finally living it. We are in Europe! We drove out of Vandenberg SFB, California on 1 June to Tucson, Arizona to spend time with family and friends before we departed the country. Being with friends and family is always a battery charger for us. It was nice to feel the warmth of the desert heat for a bit before we embark on our new adventure.
Sunset at Windy Vista Point on Mt Lemon
Blue hour on Mt Lemon
Spending time with mom
Tucson in the distant. View from Mt Lemon
I have been dreaming of Europe since I first joined the military and I finally received an assignment here. Best of all, I will be working for NATO as a staff officer. It is definitely a dream come true for me and Mayra. Arriving in Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam the morning of June 10, we were picked up by a shuttle service arranged by our sponsor for a two hour drive down to the province of Limburg. We were pretty tired so the ride was us fighting off sleep while trying to soak in our new surroundings.
We are staying in the town of Susterseel in Germany which is only a five minute drive to the Dutch border. Our host Bart had everything prepared for us and right off the bat we were already driving and exploring the area. Bart hooked us up with new Dutch prepaid sim cards for our mobile phones, a rental car with GPS and groceries for the first two days. He is an amazing host. Mayra and I knew jet lag was going to be an issue for us the first few days so we decided to head on out while the sun was up to help us adjust to the timezone. We managed to sleep alright the first night but we were up at 0200 and we could not go back to sleep. So I decided to head out for a photo walk at sunrise around 0500 and took the images below.
My First European Sunrise
Barley Field
Susterseel, Germany
Country Roads
The province of Limburg in the Netherlands is known as a triborder area due to the three countries that meet here. Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands all share borders next to each other. My assignment is with the NATO Allied Joint Force Command in the town of Brunssum. This area of the Netherlands is more rural and the people are very friendly. The best part is that almost everyone speaks english. Mayra and I will be learning the Dutch language so we can better integrate in the community.
We spent our first weekend fighting jet lag while exploring the local area. Mayra and I drove to the city of Heerlen to check out IKEA and the town center. We figured we start with something that is familiar to us like IKEA. We found our way to the town center mall area and found it was not much different than the United States. It actually didn't feel too European so we decided to leave early.
Later in the week we found the town of Sittard in the Netherlands which had a much better vibe and it had more of the European town feel that we were expecting. It had a historic town center market area with a wide open square surrounded by restaurants, shops and bars. They all had outdoor seating and everyone was just enjoying their time. This is already one of my favorite towns. We found a nice Greek restaurant for dinner and we enjoyed the rest of our evening soaking in the European summer night.
I spent the rest of the week inprocessing with the different military bases in the area and started our house hunting process. We looked at two homes already with two more homes to go. Hopefully we find a good home soon. Until next time.
