A Dutch birthday and our first visitor!

Posted on by Melanie

This year I got to spend my (first of many) birthdays from the Netherlands! I was naive thinking we would easily be able to travel and I originally wanted to go on a trip for my birthday! That wasn’t quite the case, but we still had a great time. Next year you can catch me celebrating in the mountains of Switzerland 🇨🇭

Day of:

On my actually birthday we woke up early and went to this super cute cafe in an old theater. They had great coffee and it was fun to wake up and start the day off that way. It was called coffee & coconuts if you want to visit too!

I worked all day and then we went out for dinner in the evening. We tried tapas at mama’s & tapas and I was impressed! I love the tapas at ba ba reeba in chicago so I was nervous this place wouldn’t even compete, but was pleasantly surprised. After, we walked around the Jordaan neighbor and got gelato.

Birthday Beach Night:

This wasn’t really for my birthday, but considering it was only the day after I am totally going to count it! I was working late and Ryan came home from work and suggested we watch the sunset on the sea! We didn’t leave our apartment until 7:30, but were on the sand before 8:30. In the summer the sun doesn’t set till after 10 so we had plenty of time to walk around, have cocktails, and it truly felt like we were on vacation.

Our first visitor- Taylor

One of my best friends from college is currently living in Berlin and I am so excited she was able to be our first weekend guest! Taylor came in on Friday and stayed the weekend exploring Amsterdam and celebrating my birthday.

Friday it rained in the evening so we ate all you can eat sushi and kept it low-key. Saturday I hosted a brunch and made homemade cinnamon rolls for everyone! They don’t have American cinnamon rolls slathered in frosted here so I decided I would just have to make them myself!

The rest of the day we walked around Amsterdam stopping at various bars to drink wine and enjoy the beautiful day! We obvious got gelato from my favorite place and sat along the canals. I’m so lucky to have already found a great group of friends here 🙂

Sunday I didn’t take as many pictures, but we went on a boat tour in the morning, bike ride in the afternoon, and watched the Netherlands play (lose) in the Euro tournament. Taylor did a great job navigating biking in the Netherlands! Ryan and I are now quite adjusted to biking, but it can be quite nerve wracking for someone new and not as comfortable with biking.

❤️ Melanie

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