travelogue: amsterdam and den bosch 2017/2018

hello amsterdam!  stefan and i had 2 nights and 3 days to ourselves thanks to kai who chose to head over to his oma and opa's house early.  we stayed in the nine streets neighbourhood which we would highly recommend.  it has all the good stuff: delicious eats, lots of local shops, and good coffee houses.

the streets of haarlemmerdijk and haarlemmerstraat are full of great shops too.  

we visited the van gogh museum.  it is a must if you visit amsterdam but buy tickets online ahead of time to avoid the line-up.  it chronicles his life via his art which is incredibly well done.  we were both in awe... and what a story.  if not for his sister-in-law and nephew, he'd still be an unknown.  

for good food head over to it. cornelis, a modern dutch restaurant that we thoroughly enjoyed (take a peek, it's pretty as well).  and i won't lie, there was a lot of french fries with mayo and curry sauce consumed :)

a cat and oliebollen!

cozy at harm and marion's place. what absolute lazy and relaxing days. guys, they were very slow, we didn't plan much.  a bike ride, visits to a coffee shop in town, but mostly we slept, read, played rummikub and ate yummy dutch treats.

den bosch is an adorable little town with little canals, drab the coffee shop and cute shops along snellestraat like oak but also along other streets too, daily poetry and concept store 21.

on new year's eve, kai couldn't wait until midnight to play with the fireworks...  the city erupts with noisy fireworks all day long.  it was quite the sight and sound.

and we ate oliebollen, a fried dutch snack that pops up around the holiday season.  it's warm, greasy, and ridiculously delicious.  they are easy to buy thanks to the pop-up stands around the city.  it's traditional to eat oliebollen at midnight... marion made her own.  

kai shared with stefan that he thought his oma and opa were pretty awesome and wants to return next year.  my heart exploded upon hearing this, i love that he enjoyed his new year celebration :)

stefan and i went on a new year's day bike ride.  it was very windy but so lovely.

on our last day, marion took us to nijmegen, the oldest city in the netherlands.  the waal river, more fries, a quaint square, glasses of wine, pea soup, and soccer played with an oliebollen :)

it was hard getting back into a routine after a thoroughly relaxing winter break.  thank you h&m. xo