Ella & Geert
Who are we? And what was our motivation to change our lifestyle.
Am Ella, I was born and raised in Nijmegen, that’s in the Netherlands. I have two older sisters and a all grown up daughter.
I always loved travelling. As kids our parents took us everywhere. A day to a theme park, picnic in the woods, sometimes on winter sport. But every summer school vacation our parents took us to France, Germany, Austria or Italy for a few weeks. I loved everything about it the only thing I hated was going back home.
Like I said, I grew up in Nijmegen. I had a good childhood and a good school time with many friends.
Eventually years later I worked as a contract manager at an international software company. I met Geert in 2012 at this company.
After two years of driving back and forth between Nijmegen and Amsterdam, I moved to Amsterdam in 2014. When you move, you need to find a new job. In my last 'working' years I was responsible for the recycling and reuse of Lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles.
As you have read on the Travelling page, Geert and I share the passion for travel. Besides traveling, I am now an avid runner. And through Geert I have also come into contact with golf, which I like to do occasionally
Other than that, I like reading books and magazines. Oh, and I love animals, I've always had cats. Geert and I had cat named Boef, a British shorthair. It wasn't easy to say goodbye to Boef, but he now lives with good friends on a farm.
Furthermore, I'm actually not so much into writing or talking about myself very much, so I especially invite you to get to know me more closely via this website, Instagram account or Polarsteps page. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me by email.
After this career I rolled into corporate life at some point and in recent years I have been a consultant at a software company. In addition to tennis, I have become more and more a golfing addict in recent years, powerfully beautiful. I love almost all ball sports and hitting a golf ball well is ultimate.
Furthermore, before I got an artificial hip in 2013, I ran a lot and I actually always did fitness. And as I said, I love watching sports, and the Amsterdam soccer team Ajax in particular.
The adventurous has always been there for me, I have lived and worked in Boston in the USA for a while, the wider world has always attracted me. And as you have now read, we have moved out into the wide world. For me, too, I'm not going to write too much about myself, just follow us here and/or on our other channels and you'll learn everything about us.
Hey, and I'm Geert, born and raised in Amsterdam. I have lived in Amsterdam for most of my life. I also have a daughter, just a little older than Ella's daughter. Jacqueline is not my natural daughter, but I did raise her largely, so I consider her that way.
I've always been very sporty and I love watching sports as well. I myself have played tennis from an early age and I have also been a tennis teacher for years.
And together we are Ella & Geert
As above indicated, we met at work in the spring of 2012. That has always gone very well and has been approached positively by the employer. And we handled it professionally. When Ella's daughter went to college and left home, was this a good time for Ella to move to Amsterdam?
In Amsterdam we lived at an apartment where Geert already lived. That was fine in itself however we still wanted a house with garden and a bit out of Amsterdam. Eventually, in 2015, we sold the apartment and our house in Florida and bought a new house in Abcoude. In the end, we lived there with great pleasure for almost 4 years. Until this all started in September 2020.
If you have read our story on the Travelling page, you will now know why we no longer live in Abcoude. We travel the world and we sometimes say: The World is our Garden. And that's what it feels like. We travel and live in the wide world. Every day we can make the choice we want…, that is our greatest wealth.
We no longer care about materialistic matters, for us it is about the freedom we experience.