The Paddington Press: November 2015

K this place....

Words can't even describe the beauty. It is vibrant, fun, charming, busy, and full of life.

Driving into the Netherlands was a dream. I made Tom pull over and drive through a cute town called Hank, I about DIED, so cute. I felt like I was in a movie.

The windmills on the drive were perfect.

We stayed at Die Port Van Cleve which was an ideal location, right in front of a tram stop and walking distance to Dam Square. The hotel was a classic European hotel, small and charming. It was a little too small for my liking, i hate a messy room, but it was perfect for our short stay. I enjoyed the pub connected to the hotel, the bartender was PHENOMENAL, he recommended things to do and places to see, he even brought us complimentary "dutch shots," he really made our stay at Die Port Van Cleve enjoyable.

On the first day we just strolled through the amazing streets and shops, we may or may not have stopped for coffee every other hour. Tom and I love coffee in Europe, I don't know if it because we are on vacation that it tastes better or what but the Europeans know how to make coffee, we were on a cappuccino kick this trip...had about 28+ of them.

Dom Square and my awkward self.

Just trotting through the square. NBD.

Day two was "touristy" and consisted of Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank House, "I AM AMSTERDAM" sign, and some other random sites. We had THE best sandwiches for lunch with some local beer. For dinner we decided we wanted to randomly stumble upon something (my favorite) so we walked around till we came across the perfect place that served tapas from around the world, i basically got all my favorite food in one meal.. pizza, falafel, veggie burger, curry, and hummus (legit all my fav food...and wine...cant forget the wine).

Not sure why i only snapped one photo at the museum but... here it is.

Anne Franks house was BUSY. Buy your tickets online. We skipped that whole line and walked right in.

We bought some yummy delicious cheese from this cute little shop.

some killer shopping happened right on this street.

One morning we got up early. Dam square was empty as can be. Loved it. We got coffee and just soaked it all in.

We had way too much fun shopping, sightseeing, strolling the canals, and eating.

I cannot wait to go back to Amsterdam, it officially stole my heart.

As we hopped on the express train out of the city, we packed our car, and began our next adventure to BELGIUM (I was excited for some waffles and fries.)

xo
m

So about a month after we got home from Scandinavia we got an email from Norwegian Airlines saying "crazy cheap flights to Europe..you NEED to go," jk it didn't say that but it pretty much did.

We scored round trip tickets to Europe for under $600 each. CRAY

We started our Euro road trip in Hamburg.

Hamburg is known as a "working metropolitan" city. We arrived around 1:30 pm, jet lagged as can be, but DONT worry it was Hamburg DOM! Yeah, I didn't know what it was at first either but basically it is a HUGE fair, probably the best thing you can imagine to help beat jet lag.

We got to our awesome apartment hotel, perfect size and space for your first night in Europe after a long day traveling. Once we did some yoga, we headed to DOM and absolutely loved it. We ate the best doughnuts drenched in powder sugar, drank some local brew, had one too many coffees (gotta make it till at least 9 pm) and bought more candy.

About 2 hours into Dom it starts snowing, i don't mean cute little romantic snow flurries, I mean blizzard snow, but everyone was just carrying on as if nothing was wrong...we thought the whole place was going to shut down, OH NO, everything just kept on a going, we road a huge roller coaster in a blizzard...that will be one memory for the books.