We left early the next morning to start the drive back to Holland.
We stopped to eat lunch in this awesome food court situated over the freeway! The Grays all had memories of it from their time in Holland so of course we had to eat there. The food was a buffet of all these fresh entrees and delicious vegetable dishes and we left very happy.
We dropped off Laura and Rich's luggage at their hotel outside of town, and then drove to the AirBnb that Ryan and I would be staying at. IT WAS ADORABLE. Definitely the cutest place we stayed in Europe! Ryan and I decided to splurge on ourselves a little and rent an apartment in an actual canal house and it was definitely worth it! I specifically wanted to take those wood floors and gorgeous windows home with me.
For a couple hours we just walked around to explore the area of the city we were in. I fell in love with the Jordaan District. Oh my goodness. It is so charming and so perfectly located, but still felt secluded and out of the busy central area. The streets are just lovely and walkable and quiet. Except for the shirtless man who we saw with his living room window wide open, quite literally dancing like no one was watching. But pretty much everyone in the entire intersection was...
Finally got a picture with one of these! Hannah sized car! [: They were all over Amsterdam. So tiny.
We were within walking distance of Westerkerk and the Anne Frank house. One of my favorite moments was turning down this street for the first time and seeing the Westerkerk tower RIGHT THERE. It was so perfect.
The Grays had to leave to get back to their hotel and prepare for flying out the next morning, which left Ryan and I alone to explore. We decided to head back to the Dam Square area so that I could see what it looked like without thousands of people jammed into it as was the case on Liberation Day. It was pretty cool! The whole area was definitely more geared towards tourists with the tons of gift shops and tourist traps, though. So many people and buses and cars.
These houses! I can't believe how crooked they are. I would be so scared to live in them!
From Dam Square we walked north to see Amsterdam Centraal, where we would be picking up Jen, our sister in law, the next day. This building is GORGEOUS. And the bike racks outside the station - literally double-decker! And packed!
We tossed around the idea of eating in the Dam Square area but thought better of it once we saw the jacked up prices and packed restaurants. I had a few places I had heard about in my research before the trip, so we picked one - La Perla Pizzeria - and soon were happily seated back in our quieter Jordaan district in the cozy restaurant. It was busy but the service was beyond friendly and quick. And then there was the food - THE BEST PIZZA we have ever had. This pizza was absolutely divine!!! We were so happy with this place!
The next morning we took our first Uber ever (quickly found out it is QUITE awesome and even ended up using it several more times before we left) to Centraal to pick up Jen! Earlier in the year we were thrilled to find out that she had a business trip that overlapped our Europe trip by two days. Obviously we had to hang out. [: It was so great to see her. She was so adorably jet-lagged though and we knew we had to keep her out in the sunshine as much as possible so she wouldn't pass out on us. So we dropped her bags back home and headed toward the Noordermarkt Farmer's Market.
This was a great morning activity. We sampled breads, cheeses, drooled over beautiful antiques, and used up some of our last euros on gifts - scarves, old postcards, some cheese, and a box of macarons. And also tried not to be jealous when Rich and Laura suddenly sent us pictures of themselves in first class seats for their flight home, thanks to Rich's friend Lex (who I got to finally meet at the reunion on our first evening in Holland, and who is one of the most hilarious and wonderful people on planet Earth) at Schipol! What the what!
Bonus of having Jen with us was we had someone to take non-selfie pictures of us. [:
Okay okay - look at THESE houses! They win the leaning contest.
Jen wanted to see the area where the Anne Frank house was, so we headed in that direction.
Sat by a canal for a bit for a trying-to-fight-jet-lag break. [:
Oh be still my heart. ^^ The most perfect view.
My last thing on my must-see list was the Van Gogh Museum. The walk down to Museumplein was so beautiful. And it took us like 40 minutes! This city is perfect. We took Jen past the Rijksmuseum and the IAmsterdam sculpture, and then we sat for a bit and ate our farmer's market spoils at the pools nearby. This whole day was bittersweet; our last day in Europe! ):
Then, the museum. Oh my word. So D'Orsay was my favorite museum in Paris and the Van Gogh museum was DEFINITELY my favorite museum in Holland. I still dream about it! So well done and just chock-full of works by my favorite artist of all time. And I got to see my favorite painting of his, Almond Blossom. Van Gogh painted it for his newborn nephew, who was named Vincent after him, and this same nephew eventually went on to found the Van Gogh Museum. I just think that is the sweetest thing ever, and being there in person... yeah I almost cried. I love love love that man's paintings.
Sidenote to that was the hilariously exhausted Jen who we kept losing in the museum, only to find her slumped on a bench somewhere as she struggled to keep conscious in the dimly-lit and very sleepiness-inducing museum. [:
For dinner, guess what, we ended up going BACK to La Perla haha! We just had to show Jen. And selfishly we just wanted more of that pizza. Just as good the second time. And then on the walk back home we passed this creamery and decided to splurge on dessert because heck, it was our last night of this dream trip in this perfect, magical place.
The next morning we got up early, sadly packed, said goodbye to Jen, and called an Uber to take us to Schipol. We had a just a few euros left and had to blow it on random stuff including two of the biggest Milka bars I have ever seen, naturally. One for us and one for my family. Spoiler alert: it never made it to my family... Sorry guys...
We also loved that there were strategically-placed donation boxes in the international terminal, perfect for people going back to their native countries who needed to get rid of their euros at the last minute. Genius!
We were eventually called up to have our documents checked and to answer some questions about our trip (felt super bad for the guy next to us who was getting GRILLED by a customs agent... sorry dude). Our agent took our boarding passes to check our seating assignment and soon looked perplexed and asked, "Did you change your seats recently?" Ryan and I looked at each other and then it dawned on us - Lex had upgraded us to first class too!!
I am officially spoiled for life. I don't want to fly any other way, ever again, because this was absolutely out of this world fantastic. Ryan had flown first class multiple times before and settled right into it, but I, being the noob that I am, literally just sat there for the first half hour of our flight because I legitimately did not know what to do with myself. All this room. This menu of like six meals we'd get throughout the flight. This BED I was sitting in. This TV and this remote. This little care package of toothpaste and lotion and earplugs and socks (okay still wondering about the socks). I was confused if that thing was for us to keep so I asked Ryan and he laughed at me. But seriously, people do this?! This is... a thing?! We were so comfortable, we had great food (like, we're talking a warm cookie and a glass of cold milk halfway through the flight), and we watched movies on demand for the entire flight. It was the best flight I have ever had. Thank you Lex!
Ryan settling in for a nap. [:
The flight home was perfect. I looked through my pictures while I wasn't stuffing my face with delicious food or watching free TV (booyah for ultimate laziness points) and almost wanted to cry about how perfect our trip was. And though I was sad to leave Europe, I was really excited to be home.
Rich and Laura picked us up from the airport and before we knew it, we were back in our apartment in good old Utah after what seemed like months being away. Europe felt like a weird dream. Partly because of all of the memories swimming through our heads that were so different from home, and partly because our bodies were not sure what the heck to do about it being daytime while we would actually be getting ready to eat dinner in Amsterdam. Getting back into our work schedules was tough. We were exhausted all the time! We finally just ended up falling asleep as soon as I got home (5pm) on our third day back and waking up in the morning (5am), fully clothed and very confused but feeling much better after sleeping literally twelve hours straight! The magic remedy. [:
And that concludes the best trip of my life. Two weeks in France and the Netherlands with my husband. The dreamiest vacation I could ever imagine! I think about walking the canal streets in Amsterdam, eating at outdoor bistros in Paris, and driving in the French countryside multiple times every day. I crave the pizza, the pasta, the macarons, the bread, basically just the food all the time. I miss the awesome way Europeans dress. I miss the magic of the old buildings and streets. I miss waking up and knowing I'd see familiar places I had grown to love and a hand full of new things too.
We're already planning for the next time we'll go back. [;
