The beginning of this dreamy trip. It seems like months ago!
We spent the night at Ryan's parents' so that we could get a ride to the airport when
Rich went to work. Ollie was a dream, as usual.
The things we need to bring/do to keep Oliver content on flights has changed so much since his first flight! Back with three-week-old Ollie I was just worried about having extra clothes if he blew out and avoiding an anxiety attack over all the germs. Now I don't even care about germs... ha! And we stock the diaper bag with crayons, stickers, and snacks. He's the happiest little traveler. We love traveling with our Ollie-man.
Mount Rainier in view = landing soon!
That little pose. What the. 😂
I was so nervous to drop Oliver off for 9 whole days. Not because I didn't trust my fam to take care of him, but because I worried he'd be so difficult, that my family wouldn't like him anymore! Haha, is that weird? He is such an easy kid, but I was so scared that he'd sleep horribly and be crabby all day every day. The day that we spent in Maple Valley I just prayed that he'd settle in and be happy there without us.
Worked out at our favorite little Maple Valley Fitness and sent this picture to Lydia because I used one of her shirts without permission. #payback
Always love being in my parents' back yard!
Dropping us off at the airport. I cried. We tried to make it normal but Ollie noticed that we were being weird and giving him a million hugs and kisses... so he got worried. Oops. But apparently he only cried for a minute in the car and then was happy for the WHOLE rest of the week! What a relief oh my gosh. Love that happy boy!
No big deal, just chillin in the premium lounge cause that's right, Ryan surprised me with premium seats! He had upgraded a few days before. We ate some snacks and relaxed until it was time to head to our gate. Turns out we shouldn't have bothered... because our flight was almost two hours late boarding. Ha! My friends, if you ever fly Norwegian, prepare for late flights! It's just their MO.
We boarded our plane with a liiiiittle anxiety because we had a pretty close connection once we landed in Gatwick. We had spontaneously decided to spend our 10-hour layover in Amsterdam instead of London! We had like three hours between our flights so if no time was made up in the air... We were gonna be stressed.
Still happy to be on our way to Europe!
Nine hours later, we landed in Gatwick, PRAISED THE HEAVENS that we had signed up for Gatwick Premium for passport control so we could zoom right to the front of the line, sped over to our Yotel room (such a cool little hotel on the lower floors of the airport) so we could take the fastest showers known to man (we had planned on having a leisurely few hours there to clean up, but oh well!), and then zoomed to the terminal for our EasyJet flight to Amsterdam.
It was good to be back in the Schipol. :) Ryan couldn't help but smile! We were so excited. But by this time, the jetlag was seriously starting to hit me. I had not slept well on the plane and whoo-ie it was getting rough! I felt sick. Haha. Power through!
We took a train to Amsterdam Centraal and walked out into the sun in our favorite city!
Hellooo Amsterdam!
Our plan was renting bikes, finding food, hitting Vondelpark, and stopping by our favorite canal. Sadly, the MAC Bikes location by Centraal was totally sold out, so they sent us toward their second location.
Combine our jetlag with road construction that totally messed up all forms of direction, and you get us wandering around in the hot sun trying to find this dang place for like almost an hour! BUT, we eventually found it. Sing praises. Our hours in the city were precious few so we sped off (not a good idea to rush when you're just learning how to bike in an insane city like Amsterdam, but we survived!) to drop off our luggage for the day. We picked the same place that we used on our last trip with my family. Aaaannnd surprise - they rent bikes now. Woulda been good to know. ;) Next time!
I needed FOOD so we stopped by our favorite pancake place for lunch.
Then back to exploring!
Dudes, riding in Amsterdam is NOT a joke. Ryan took to it like a fish to water but I was shaking with fright! It took me awhile to get used to it!
We were heading in the general direction of Vondelpark, and I was just feeling crummier by the minute. Like seriously I just wanted to die hahaha. I felt icky, I was anxious about how Ollie was doing, and I just wanted to lay down in the street and sleep! Ha! My experience with jet lag this time around was the worst it's ever been! It was yuck. So we decided to stop by the Foodhallen to get something a little more substantial than pancakes.
We parked our bikes in the little underground bike-parking-garage and walked up to peruse the restaurant choices. There were so many options. We'd definitely recommend this place for a meal in AMS!
Bitterballen and fish & chips it was. Not pictured, the fish & chips where the slab of fish was bigger than my face.
Feelin a little more energized and ready to go see Vondelpark.
And let me tell ya, IT. DE. LIVERED.
Seriously, we were just biking along the streets following Ryan's directions, when we turned right and suddenly were under ENORMOUS green trees and surrounded by happy birdsongs. It just popped out of nowhere. I tell you, it gave me LIFE. I got my second wind the moment we entered that magical park.
Rhodie game on point. ^^
Sailing through the park on our bikes was good enough in itself, but drooling over the homes that bordered the park was icing on the cake. They were stunning! And SO huge by Amsterdam standards.
Ponds, fountains, live music, pretty houses, happy people hanging out on the grass, happy people on bikes, green everywhere = happy me.
I'm in love with you, Vondelpark!
Somewhere in the park we had realized we just wanted more time, so we gained an extra hour by planning to take an Uber to the airport that night, instead of the train. Yes! Time to explore some more.
Last stop - our little spot where the Leidsegracht meets the Herengracht:
I don't know why we like it so much. We happened upon it on our first trip here, back in 2014. We were just leaving Het Grachtenhuis, and we saw it and fell in love! Each of the three times we've been here, we have stopped by. Ollie got to meet it last time, which was so neat. (And... my Dad's phone is somewhere at the bottom of the canal here. 😂 Yes, he dropped it. It was the saddest point of our trip last year. Luckily the wound has healed a bit so we sent him some pictures and poked a little fun.)
Also, the view toward the Herengracht is perfection.
Looking back toward the cute little bridge. I love this city.
Sadly riding back to return our bikes, but happily burying our feelings in a stack of stroopwafels.
I had to take a picture of the sign because it made me giggle. "The yummiest stroopwafels!" We agree! So much that we bought four bags. Two for us, one for my sisters and dad who we'd meet up with later that night, and one for my dad to take back to my mama.
Bikes in the bike parking garage. We parted from our trusty friends here. :(
Walking to get our luggage and catch our Uber. The evening light on these canal houses was so beautiful. THIS WAS THE BEST DAY. We were on a high (but also so, so exhausted. Woah. But we tried not to think about it.)
Ryan got us some hot chocolate at Gatwick & it was like 1am & we were tired so I took this doofy picture. ;)
We met my Dad and sisters in their hotel room and heard all about their incredible Europe trip! Lydia and Dad had been all over Eastern Europe over the last two weeks, and Sarah had joined them for some time in Spain, and now we all were going to be hitting Central Europe (sans Dad). Sisters trip plus Ryan! 😂
We were so excited to see them. We talked until way too late and went to bed like three hours before we had to get up for our flight to Munich the next morning. Our bodies hated us.
Ah well. You only live once. ;)
THANKS AMSTERDAM.
💛💛
