Getting Lost In Amsterdam

We had such a spectacular time in Amsterdam. The vibe is quite different from London...very chill, anything goes and fun-loving & extremely tolerant. It's quite beautiful with numerous canals, bridges, and really wonderful architecture. Sprinkle in a few great museums, pancake houses, cafes & shops, it's everything I love wrapped up in one charming city.


We visited the Anne Frank House, the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. All are definite must sees. The Anne Frank House was extremely moving and the Rijksmuseum had spectacular pieces by the Dutch masters including Rembrant and Vermeer. And over at the Van Gogh Museum besides hundreds of pieces of his work, there was also an exibition of letters he wrote to his brother, other family members and friends over the years. I think I actually liked that exibition as much as his paintings. If anyone is planning on visiting Amsterdam before January of 2010 you should really be sure to check it out.

Outside the Rijksmuseum

One of the highlights of Amsterdam had to be the amazing pancakes! I stopped by The Pancake Bakery on quite a few occasions. Sweet and savory, they were all amazing! We've been going through pancake withdrawl since we've been back. Luckily it seems as if J might have tracked down a place in NYC that makes them...The Sullivan Diner. I'm gonna try to check it out in the very near future to see if it satisfies the craving.

Me outside the famous Pancake Bakery. This was my second visit there so I was really excited to go in!

Delicious pancakes. The one in the back is banana and I put Nutella on top. The one in the front is bacon and cheese. Yummmm!

On my second visit, I decided to try poffertjes, tiny Dutch pancakes. I went with the butter and sugar variation. Pure perfection! They actually melted in your mouth!

On every table they have something called Stroop which is the syrup of choice in Amsterdam, powdered sugar and a bucket of pure molasses.

We also discovered Stroopwaffles at The Pancake Bakery. They give you one with every cup of coffee. They're caramel waffle cookies. Just amazing! We brought a few packages back with us but I think I might order a few more and give them out as xmas gifts.

We went shopping at a few stores. One of my favorites was Sissy-Boy Homeland, a lifestyle concept shop. It kinda reminds me of the Dutch version of Antropology. The displays were just gorgeous. I bought a few of these mercury glass votives.

We also stopped by De Kaaskamer, a cheese-lover's paradise. The sell over 400 different types of cheese from all over Europe. In addition they also sell wine, olives, tapanades, meats and sandwiches & salads.

And we strolled through the Flower Market. What a amazing feast for the eyes! We brought back some tulip bulbs for our families.

And I wanted to share some more exciting news with you all. I temporarily overcame my fear of Smart Cars! I'm not sure how long that will last now that I'm back in the states...

Conquering the fear!

All in all, it was an absolutely amazing trip that I'll remember forever. Unfortunately now it's time for me to stop daydreaming about my honeymoon and get my butt into holiday gear!

Walking Round London Town

Happy Friday everyone! Well I finally figured out how to upload the photos from my new camera so today I can begin to share some of our amazing trip with you.

First of all I have to say that I LOVE London. Absolutely love, love, love it and would definitely be a very happy girl if I could live there. I didn't even mind the weather which is really remarkable because I'm usually a bit of a freak about my hair in such conditions. What can I say? It's just my kinda town :)

Me in London on one of the rare blue sky occasions. It was quite windy though...as you can see I'm looking pretty flushed because of the wind-burn!

We stayed at the Grosvenor House in Mayfair. It was a lovely hotel in a great location. Just a few blocks away from Oxford & Bond Street shopping, Hyde Park, and the Marble Arch tube which made it really convenient to get around town.

One of the highlights of the trip, besides the shopping (I'll get to that in another post), was the Winter Wonderland festival that was held inside Hyde Park.

The festival features a traditional German market with amusement rides (they even have a huge toboggan slide and an even huger ferris wheel!), musical entertainment and an outdoor ice skating rink.

It's hard to describe exactly why but was a really magical experience that I'll remember forever.

Here are my top three favorite things at the festival:

Mulled Blueberry Wine

The Candy Bar

German Pancakes with Nutella - Yummmm!!!!

The happy girl with her mulled wine, nutella german pancakes & yes, that's a Laduree shopping bag :)

We had been to London once before 13 years earlier for our 1st honeymoon after our commitment ceremony so we didn't need to visit many of the tourist attractions. But there were a few that we wanted to catch this time that we missed the first time around...the Cabinent War Rooms and Churchill Museum, which was a really interesting peak inside the underground complex that Churchill used as an operational command and control center during WWII, and the London Eye, which wasn't even around when I made my first trip.

Me filming J with the London Eye in the background

For the most part we just walked around and shopped, had cocktails and ate delicious meals. Oh and I have to say, the culinary experience I had was muuuch different than the one I had 13 years before. On my first trip to London the only decent meal I could find was a local fish and chip shop that we ended up eating at three times! A few years ago I read in Gourmet magazine that London had a culinary revolution but I still had my doubts and my expectations were really low. I'm happy to say I was pleasantly surprised with the cuisine.

Enjoying one of many apple cinnamon martinis in The Red Bar

Next week I'll be back with more of the trip...London shopping & Amsterdam. Hope you all have a happy weekend!

The Sun Always Shines

In my mind! Will the sun ever come out again???

Hello everyone! Well I'm finally back after my European vacay. It rained every single day yet it was absolutely amazing and I promise to fill you all in on everything very soon.

I will tell you that the trip got off to a great start. I was at JFK in an airport lounge with Doutzen Kroes ,one of my absoultely favorite models (shown above sporting some fab rain gear...i thought how appropriate! :)). I know it sounds kinda lame but I've always been a bit model obsessed so that was a little thrill for me. Dork! yes I know.... And then I was on the security line right in back of Rosie Huntington Whitely, one of Victoria's Secrets newest Angels and some other glamazons who I couldn't quite make out because their backs were turned to me. Turns out the VS fashion show was the night before I left for my trip so the angels were abound at JFK!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and I hope all my yankee mates had a wonderful turkey day! xoxo

Image: Doutzen Kroes for British Vogue Dec '09

Happy Friday!

Greetings from Amsterdam! Hope you all had a wonderful turkey day and I hope that you have a fun-filled weekend on tap. We'll be enjoying our last few days in Europe. I'm sure we'll have the time of our lives :)

Check back later for the last of the wedding recaps...the Cookie Table!

See you all when I get back! xoxo

Image: the Satoralist found here

Happy Turkey Day!!!

I want to wish all my fellow American friends a very Happy Thanksgiving today! Eat some yummy turkey & pie for me. I'm going to try to hunt some down in Amsterdam but I'll most likely have to settle for some delicious pancakes instead :)

Image: found here

Farewell London!

Hallo Amsterdam! Venice of the North here we come!

Hope you're all having a lovely Tuesday. Check back later today for another recap :)

Image: found here

London Lovely

Best wishes from London for a lovely Saturday :)

Image: found here

Someone's Excited!

Happy Friday everyone! I'm over the moon today because today's the big day that J & I head on over to Europe for Honeymoon Part Deux! I seriously cannot contain my excitement!!!

We'll be in London for three nights and then we're heading on over to Amsterdam for five nights. It should be an amazing trip. We have a few things planned but mostly we're just gonna kick back & leisurely explore both cities . Oh and thanks everyone for all the suggestions of what to do. All the info is really helpful :)

I didn't want to leave you all for so long so I scheduled postings for while I'm away so be sure to check in daily.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! xoxo

Image: found here

Honeymoon Part Deux!

We're in the process of booking our second honeymoon. As I mentioned a few months ago, we planned on taking a longer, more adventurous honeymoon sometime around the US Thanksgiving holiday.

Well after much consideration we finally decided to go to London and Amsterdam. We went to London once before 13 years ago (wow I can't believe it's actually been that long!) for our honeymoon after our commitment ceremony. We've been dying to go back for years so we decided it would be the perfect place to go. We have such great romantic memories of the city and listen, I'm not gonna lie, I cannot wait to shop there!!!

After a few days in London, we're going to take a quick flight on over to Amsterdam. We've never been so we're really excited to go.

The flights are booked, now we're just working on hotels. I'd appreciate any recommendations you guys may have. Thanks!!!

LDN - Lily Allen

Image: via Audrey Hepburn Complex

Happy Honeymooners!

We're so excited because today we booked our honeymoon! We were having a hard time deciding where to go so we're really relieved that we came up with a plan that we're both excited about. Originally we were considering going to Spain to visit Barcelona and Ibiza and/or Majorca but that would have required taking at least 2 weeks off from work and I wasn't sure that I could swing that. Then we considered the Caribbean or Cabo but those weren't really an option because it will be hurricane season. Needless to say we were both getting pretty frustrated. Luckily this morning Jen came up with the brilliant idea of taking a more local honeymoon right after the wedding and then taking another honeymoon around Thanksgiving when we will have more travel options and will have to take less time off of work. Leave it to us to have 2 honeymoons!

So we decided to go to Fairmont le Chateau Montebello for a few days of rest, relaxation and at a lot of spa time! This is a perfect choice for us because we LOVE Canada and we LOVE Fairmont hotels. And after that we will drive to Montreal, one of our favorite cities, for a few days of fun!


Part II of the honeymoon has yet to be planned so stay tuned!

Images: www.fairmont.com/montebello