We are living in Rhenen, a historical town in the center of Holland, only 60 minutes from Amsterdam. Our home is clean, bright, and furnished for the global oriented family.

We have a very spacious house, built in 1939 on the edge of the town, on a hill: de Grebbeberg. The environment is the perfect mix of city and rural life.

In front of us and at 2 minutes walking distance we have the woods of National Park ‘de Utrechtse Heuvelrug’ with beautiful vistas. Our neighbors are a hotel, an original Dutch pancake house and a fantastic and adventurous zoo (www.ouwehand.nl) . We can offer you one of our cars (automatic transmission) to explore Holland and bikes to see Rhenen and its surroundings.

‘Boslust’ (the name of our house) has three floors, five bedrooms, three bathrooms and two office rooms. A living room, a dining room, a kitchen that consists of two parts, including an AGA cooker and a dishwasher, and a special room at the attic for our teenagers including TV, VCR and DVD player. Of course we have a laundry, including a dryer and we also have wireless internet. The house is surrounded by lovely gardens. We have a pool, a natural swimming pond, an outdoor kitchen and three terraces. There are (adult) bikes available for your family.

We live in one of the most preferred areas of our country, we are surrounded by beautiful landscapes; many people come here for holidays to go hiking, skating, bicycling and walking.

Rhenen is a small town with many historic WW II sites. Near the house is the river Rhine with small beaches and swimming possibilities. We live next to Wageningen (7 minutes by car), a very lively university town, so there's lots of culture and activities going on. Everything you need like shops, restaurants and café’s are in Wageningen. For more 'city experience' Arnhem and Nijmegen are nearby, (1/2 hour by car), with lots of modern art and large shopping areas, while Utrecht (1/2 hour) and Amsterdam (1 hour) are close by as well - Holland is a small country. Public transport is excellent (train station at a 5 minutes walk), and this part of the country is by far not as packed with cars as the western part. All major tourist attractions (for instance 'The Efteling', 'Walibi Holland and 'Volendam') and activities in the Netherlands are to be reached within an one-and-a-half hour drive. Many attractions are really nearby: in Arnhem is another zoo with spectacular settings (Burger's Bush), the unique Open Air museum, the Kröller Müller Museum, historical cities like Zutphen, Buren, 's-Hertogenbosch (excellent shopping too) or Doesburg are nearby and really worth visiting. There are plenty wonderful hiking and biking trails.
We are happy to provide recommendations to suit your interests.

Rhenen is also a fantastic gateway to explore Europe with cities like Berlin, Salzburg, Milan, Rome, Paris, London, Vienna and Prague. All these cities only at a 1 or 2 hours flight away. Airport Schiphol and also airport Eindhoven (Ryanair) and Düsseldorf Weeze (Ryanair, Easyjet) are to reach within one hour by car.

We have 8 beds (2x2 and 4x1) but is always possible to lay down more mattresses, plenty of room to do so.

In 2013 we prefer two weeks between July 13 and August 18.

For summer 2013 or 2014 we have the wish to do an exchange (2 weeks) with a family in England or Italy.
Also a stay in in a detached house, in France (Languedoc), Croatia, Greece or or nearby 'Valencia', Spain, is a nice idea. We are fond of coastal areas!

We are also interested in 'short breaks', for instance a week in Austria, Switzerland, France, Poland in the immediate surroundings of a ski resort. (Febr. 2014)

Ook vinden het we het leuk om in lange weekeinden of bijvoorbeeld in de herfstvakantie van huis te ruilen met Waddeneiland bewoners (Ameland, Texel), Noord- of Zuid-Hollandse kustbewoners of Amsterdammers.

We are family of five: Jan is a veterinarian, Ineke is an editor. Saskia is our eldest daughter, she is 18 and studies Sociology in Amsterdam. Maybe she will stay in Amsterdam in summer 2013. Veerle is our daughter of 15, her favorite sport is hockey, she plays it three times a week; also our youngster,Roelant, a boy of 13, is very sportive, he plays tennis and soccer. All of us love skating and skiing in winter. We have a dog, 'Lex', who will be in a dog-hotel during our exchange. We have also a rabbit and some birds in the garden. If it's possible we would request you to look after them once a day. If it's not possible, then no problem because a friend of us will take care.

We love to visit big cities, because of the cultural and shopping(!) life, but also appreciate the rest of the countrylife and nature. We have a great fondness for coastal areas!

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