One of the friends we met on our last trip to Amsterdam, Andrew, recently bought himself a boat and as soon as we got into town, he invited us out for a ride and a picnic!
We were all very excited, even Rocky!
It turns out, the city of Amsterdam is even more incredible (which we thought was impossible) from the water. If you haven't yet tried a canal journey - please, please put it on the top of the list for your next visit, you won't regret it!
Thank you so much Andrew for the great invitation and incredible evening tour!
Our good friend Tarek, who we met in Buenos Aires, offered us his spare couches for the weekend and served as our unofficial local guide...
Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge) - connecting the banks of the Amstel river at our old street Kerkstraat!
Thank you Tarek for the fantastic weekend!
Andrew suggested a great organic pizza place, that specializes in local foods and picnics, for dinner. We stopped off to pick up the meal then found what we thought was a great place to tie-off and enjoy the delicious food...
turns out, that spot "belonged" to these guys, yikes! They weren't too happy when they saw us spending so much time in their space. So, the circled us and proceeded to honk and dart towards us until we changed our minds about where to tie-off for dinner.
The next morning, we experienced a bit of Amsterdam's typical weather. But we were determined to not let it keep us in...
at least not in the house! We enjoyed breakfast at our old favorite The Koffie Salon. Their cafe latte and pain au chocolates are incredible!
While we hoped the weather would eventually clear, it never really did. But, that's okay because plenty of people were still out...
Riding bikes and celebrating...
the Pride Parade! Europe's largest pride festival.
Similarly to Queen's Day, the boats fill the canals, music fills the air...
and people fill the streets.
All in all, it was a very good day.
With fun people...
Fun music...
And a great message.
Our final day in Amsterdam we ventured to the "Red Light District"
Where we knew we were bound to come across a variety of interesting sights...
and interesting stores :) This being Katie's first visit to Amsterdam, we knew she needed to experience all the main attractions!
Just as we were getting ready to leave, the weather finally started to clear. A great farewell to an incredible city.
On the way home we stopped off for dinner in Ghent, Belgium to add another country to Katie's list and of course take a few minutes to enjoy the architecture Belgium has to offer.
It's incredible that each roof top has such presence and individuality.
An amazing, traditional Belgium meal - Belgian fries and Belgian beer! A great way to wrap up a wonderful weekend. Although, we didn't get the chance to enjoy a waffle...maybe next time!
