87 West: Europe // Our first days in Amsterdam

This was the most incredible trip of my life. It still feels like a dream, and I feel like I left part of my heart there!

Leaving kinda felt like leaving home.

Ryan always told me he wanted to take me to Europe from the very beginning our engagement. [: His family spent four and a half years there while Ryan's dad worked for Northwest/KLM airlines at Schipol International Airport, and I loved hearing stories about it. I still remember this trip when I got to look through albums and albums of amazing pictures of "casual side-trips to Germany" and THE ALPS and stuff. Then we got married and we didn't have much to our name and it was awesome, but Europe was always still on our radar.

One of my favorite things about Ryan is the way he sticks to stuff he wants to get done. I always thought I would be the money manager between the two of us since I took a few finance classes at BYU, but literally starting with the money we received as wedding gifts, Ryan jumped on that train like nobody's business and almost lost sleep over how excited he was about saving. We started a "travel fund," put a little chunk of our income into it each and every month, and kept plugging through school. Time passed, our travel fund grew, Ryan's graduation got closer, and mine would be the semester after, and we decided we really wanted to start planning seriously and make it our graduation present to ourselves (kind of mentioned in this post [: ). By the fall of 2014 we were looking at tickets and hypothetical locations (We concentrated our two weeks in Holland and France. We decided we wanted to pick one region and get to know it really well over our trip, instead of skipping all over the continent and only getting a day in each place. I'm so glad we did it this way.), and then the best news ever - Delta announced a direct flight from Salt Lake to Amsterdam starting in May of 2015. We couldn't believe our luck! No pesky layovers? Sign us up. So May 2015 it was. We kept saving and planning itineraries and saving some more and the time flew by. Before we knew it it was a month away, two weeks away, a few DAYS away. We couldn't believe it was actually happening!!!

The day of our flight was probably one of the top five most anxiety-filled and exciting days of my life. My first international flight. My first flight over 6 hours. My first stamp in my passport. First time going to Europe!! Lots of firsts, and I was so excited to be with Ryan for all of it! Writing about it still makes me so excited. [:

Things I remember about the flight:

Got Cafe Rio beforehand. Haha, this is kinda dumb, but really it was the last semblance of a burrito that we saw for the next two weeks!
We kept looking at each other and bouncing in our seats and saying "IS THIS REAL?!!" Actually that was mostly me. Ryan just shook his head.
We were so thankful to have Zzyquil; We did wake up like 13 times just because sleeping upright is never great, but I always went right back to sleep after checking the flight tracker for fun and taking a peek out the window. We really felt like it helped us sleep.
The plane was huge and amazing. Walking around it was really pretty fun. And the bathrooms were big! By airplane standards...
I woke up at one point during the middle of the night and got to look out over moonlit GREENLAND (definite surreal moment).
They just kept feeding us, and feeding us, and feeding us.
When I woke up in the morning we had traded Utah mountains for flat green fields, tiny houses with red roofs, and stripes of tulips!

Ahhhhh!!!!! I can't remember much of what happened in the landing and unloading stages because I was so delirious with disbelief and sleepiness, but I know Schipol is massive and I just stumbled along behind Ryan, who knew exactly where he was going. I stood in lots of lines and answered all the questions the tall Dutch airport passport-checker man asked me, we walked for what seemed like ten miles, and then finally found Ryan's parents who had flown in the day before!

Suddenly, we were driving IN HOLLAND.

It was so interesting to be in a place where I couldn't read any of the signs, had to think twice about what the speed limit signs were saying, and didn't recognize most of the cars. And the little towns were so darling and had the coolest names. Weesp, Deimen, Aetsveld, Gaasperplas, Abcoude... There were tree-lined streets and adorable houses and CANALS everywhere. Be still my heart. It was all real.

We had time to kill before we checked into our AirBnb, so we went to the grocery store to pick up food for the week, and that's where I first got to try one of the things that was on the top of my Dutch food bucketlist: stroopwafels.

Oh my goodness. They were everything I had hoped for and MORE. Two thin wafers with a layer of caramel in the middle. I had tried them at home in Utah but these blew everything I thought I knew about stroopwafels out of the water. I ate almost half the package by myself... 7 to be exact...

no judging.

Another wonderful thing I found out about grocery stores in Holland is that they almost always have an orange juicer somewhere inside! You can operate it yourself and take as much as you want. We filled up a couple bottles at that amazing thing and boy did it help wake us up. So delicious and fresh. For the rest of our time in Holland we loved being able to count on fresh orange juice whenever we went shopping. [:

Our AirBnb place was a dream. We rented a farmhouse about 20 minutes outside Amsterdam and it was absolutely perfect. Right on a canal, so peaceful, and surrounded by the cutest houses. Our hosts were just the sweetest people and the house itself was beyond cute!

Right next door to us! Ahh! Cutest little foal.

Then we just went driving! Unfortunately on our first day it was pretty soggy and rainy, but I didn't care and had to stop and get out to take a picture of this field. ^^ Blew my mind. All the Holland stereotypes. Right in front of me. It was real.

Also this fascinating little Dutch horticultural tradition - look at those trees! Leibomen are trees that have been trained to grow only flat and horizontally, and they were everywhere in the countryside. They were so odd, but cool! They looked like big bugs...

Right across the canal from our place! :O << My face every time.

We were scheduled to have dinner that night with a group of Rich's old co-workers, and on the way there we stopped in Ryan's old neighborhood of Sassenheim. This was something I was so excited to see! It was so fun to have Ryan and his parents point things out and share memories about everything. It was the first time Ryan had been back since moving away years ago, and it was cute to see how excited he was. [:

We got to see Ryan's old house on Anthony Fokkerlaan (Anthony Fokker's Lane, named after a Dutch airman) and I finally got to see the canal in his backyard that I had heard so many stories about! Like cows falling into it... Ha.

Then it was off to Eetcafe Zomerzorg (such a fantastic name) in Hillegom. Before everyone showed up, Ryan and I went for a walk around the town. I wanted to get out and explore both out of curiosity and just to stave off the exhaustion that was setting in. The 8-hour time difference was getting to me at this point. Jetlag is the weirdest feeling. The city was so adorable, though. Everything was adorable. The genius bike paths and walking paths, the canals everywhere, the cobbled streets, the tiny cars and streets... heart eyes for days.

Can you imagine having this in your back yard? ^^

Most of the homes/apartments looked like this. The spatial layout of the towns were all so dense! Most people live in apartments instead of separate homes. And there were SO many apartment buildings - like no houses at all. It was so interesting.

I love those orangey-red roofs. [:

Dinner was a blast, and it was so fun to meet people that I had heard countless hilarious stories about. We had fantastic food (I had the best Asian chicken skewers & peanut sauce of my life. Also, fries and mayo, called "friet and mayo" in Dutch, are a thing in the Netherlands. So we obviously got some.) and lots of laughing till we cried. Everyone laughed at me when I started to totally nod off at the table even amid the loud conversation. The jetlag struggle is real. We slept like rocks that night. And were woken up by sheep at 5am.

The next day was UNBELIEVABLE. We got up early and headed off to one of the itinerary items I was most excited about. And it turned out to be one of most beautiful, perfect, breath-taking, romantic places I have ever been to - Keukenhoff Tulip Gardens in Lisse.
Holy amazing.

Keukenhoff selfie and an obligatory tourist shot with de klompen.

Keukenhoff kisses.

Guy selling stroopwafels. Obviously these were the inferior kind because his signs are in English. I only accept the truly authentic kind... Ahem. But I wanted a picture anyways because stroopwafels.

My favorite ones. ^^ I love yellow tulips.

Needless to say it was H E A V E N. What started out as a cloudy, gloomy morning turned into an absolutely gorgeous sunny day, and I hope I never forget the almost literal heart attack I had when we entered the park and turned the corner into the first gorgeous ocean of tulips. It was empty of people except for us and I half-expected angels to descend and sing. Almost sob-worthy.

Next was one of my favorite parts - Ryan's school for the four and a half years that the Grays lived in Holland. I had heard so much about ASH from Ryan and I was so excited to see it and be there with him.

This was such a neat experience. It was so fun to follow Ryan around and hear all the stories and memories about each part of the school. I recognized some parts from pictures and home videos. We got to tour the whole school with an alumni relations rep, and were so surprised when some of Ryan's teachers were still there! That was one of the coolest parts - seeing them slowly recognize him as the poked his head into their classrooms. Even if they were in the middle of lecture they would stop and introduce him to their class and reminisce and laugh with Ryan about old memories and classmates.
Visiting the school theater and hearing Ryan and Laura talk about memories of all the plays Ryan had been in was also SO awesome. But the best part was walking backstage and finding Ryan's name written on the wall, something all the drama kids did. He pointed out signatures from his friends and told us about each one. It was really pretty special to see a place that had shaped my husband into who he is today.

We went into Wassenaar, the city where ASH is, for lunch at Bagel Alley, a cafe that the Grays wanted to go back and visit. The town was just beautiful and the BLT I had on a freshly baked bagel was amazinggg. I loved walking through this tiny city on its darling brick streets made only for people and bikes. It was so perfect! I also loved that we would pass random places that weren't special at first glance, but then Ryan would laugh and tell me a story about a random thing that had happened at that corner, or point out a store or a square that he and his friends would always hang out at together.

Apparently this sign was advertising "Peonies to kiss!" for ten euros. [: I like it.

The homes here were so interesting! So different from American homes. I loved the red brick everywhere, the hedges, and the thatched roofs.

Next was finally THE CITY OF AMSTERDAM. Ahhh!! This is where it really started to sink in - I wasn't dreaming. I really was clear on the other side of the planet. These people in this city went about their own daily lives while I went about mine. So yeah, deep thoughts and stuff. It was surreal. It was so cool to talk to them and ask them questions and hear about their lives while they spoke perfect English in their awesome accents (Ryan and I agree that we repeatedly felt extremely stupid and unaccomplished as most Dutch people spoke English fluently and often at least one other language).
And I fell madly, HUGELY, head over heels in love at first sight with the city the and feeling of Amsterdam. Walking through this city was like a dream. This city... I just can't. I love it so much. The streets, the bikes, the canals, the people. It seriously feels like my second home now. Picture dump:

The weather was perfectly Seattle-y for our first day in the city and that made me really happy.

I loved the canal houses. Oh my goodness. I couldn't get over them. Each one was unique in color, design, roofs, trim, windows, and doors. It was like food for my eyeballs. I couldn't stop staring at each and every one.

Walking past Westerkerk. Anne Frank's home is just to the left of it!

The night before, Richard's Dutch co-workers let us know that today was Remembrance Day, a national holiday honoring all Dutch victims of war, and that the following day was Liberation Day, the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Holland and the end of Nazi occupation nearing the end of WWII. A special two-minute period of silence and a program would be taking place at Dam Square that evening, so we walked north through adorable street after street after canal to check it out.

The tower of the huge and beautiful Royal Palace, which stands over Dam Square.

It did not disappoint. Before the ceremony started, a full-sized brass band was playing music and I almost started to cry when they started up the theme from Band of Brothers, the incredible miniseries about the US 101st Airborne Division during WWII. It was so emotional! I just stood there thinking about the incredible history of WWII, mixed with that miniseries, mixed with the beautiful music, mixed with standing with thousands of people who were all total strangers but who I suddenly wanted to hug. True story.

The memorial that followed was incredibly moving, and even though we couldn't understand a word that was spoken (and I could hardly see due the fact that the Dutch are quite literally giants), the language barrier didn't dampen the reverence we felt from those two minutes of silence, which the entire country was participating in as the bell tower struck 8pm. There were thousands upon thousands of people jammed into this square, and no one spoke a word. It was beautiful. The wreath-laying ceremony that followed was just as moving. And seeing King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima was pretty cool, too!

View from the top of the palace, props to some Dutch new blog. We are somewhere down on the right.

First picture with a canal! ^^

I loved this day so much! My first day in Amsterdam. I am in love.

The next morning continued with our built-in flock-of-sheep alarm clock that would come moseying past our window at 5am. The best thing was that it wasn't even the cute little pastoral sheep sounds like from Beauty and the Beast. It was like straight up sheep-shouting sounds. Frustrated sheep. It was just so jarring and funny. Ryan and I still laugh about it now and communicate every now and then in a similar fashion.

Our neighbors had the prettiest farm. ^^

We went back into Amsterdam for the Anne Frank house, Hetgrachtenhuis (the Canal Museum), and the Dutch Resistance Museum.

The Anne Frank house was absolutely incredible. So emotional and so moving. Apparently Anne's father Otto, the only survivor of the family, requested that the home remain unfurnished when it became a museum in order to retain the stark, empty feeling he felt there. All that was there were informational plaques, Anne's writings on plaques throughout the rooms of the house, and details like the pictures she and her sister pasted on the walls of their bedrooms and the pencil marks on a wall where they measured the children's heights. It was just so sad, but Anne's writings were so inspiring. She had so much passion and hope and kindness in her heart despite her terrible experiences and shortened life, and we all walked out wanting to be more like her.

^^ This house was built in 1665! It wasn't uncommon to see homes with dates on them that were older than the founding of our country as we walked around. It was amazing!

The Canal Museum was one of the best museums we visited on our whole trip! It was quite small, but we learned so much about why the city is what it is today, the engineering of the canals and canal houses, and the development and planning of Amsterdam. The presentation of the information was charming and really well done. The gift shop was also absolutely darling; so different from the repetitive and boring ones dotting Dam Square and the main drags with all the same pot-leaf-covered shot glasses and boob-shaped pepper & salt shakers. Highly recommend this museum!

Last was the Dutch Resistance Museum. Wow. This museum was bursting at the seams with amazing information and WWII paraphernalia. Of course, most everything was in Dutch, so we felt like were missing out on a lot, but we learned so many cool stories about people who secretly or publicly resisted the Nazi occupation in funny, creative, or just plain gutsy ways. Not on the top of our list of favorite things though. I wish we knew Dutch!