And yes, it was entirely intentional.

So much for the posting every Tuesday/Thursday…. and now we’re a week and three days away from being back in the US. Time is moving ever so quickly, and yet as I turn over and over and over during the night, it moves ever so slowly.

Nonetheless, I promised a final Amsterdam post, and this is it! As I’m currently procrastinating all things getting this house ready before leaving for a few months, I still think back to that wonderful 2.5 days in Amsterdam.

I mentioned in a previous post that we went with really no plan. I mean, so many people asked, “Why Amsterdam?” and the answer for me was always “It’s not Paris.”

So without this set plan, we used the final day of our trip to do random things off the beaten path.

Let’s begin with the food, I mean, what’s visiting Amsterdam without a stroopwafle? I paired a fresh made one with nutella (of course) and then ordered a Matcha latte. A stroll in Albert Cuypmarkt satisfied a bucket list item with some delicious eats. We then beat an impending storm by finding a tiny cafe, which produced a green smoothie (so unlike me) and an acai bowl to share. Later for a lunch/brunch after taking our gender/pregnancy announcement video, we stopped at a waterfront restaurant to enjoy all the water views in a beautiful space. I had the eggs florentine toast, and H the steak tartare, with a split side of fries. If you ever find yourself in the neighborhood, Meneer Nieges is the place.

One thing about Amsterdam, was that we had a pretty decent amount of food at some pretty decent places, and the prices were really decent. Here in Lome, it’s kind of a matter of eating out at nice places, and paying premium prices. It makes us really excited for our upcoming European post to know that we can get relatively easier access at prices that make sense.

After breakfast, we headed to Kattenkabinet, which is an art museum dedicated to cat art and paraphernalia. It cost us 20 Euros to peruse the floors and art, but the real draw to this place was the real life cats that seemed walk us room to room and show us that they were the real art. Worth every Euro, and nevermind the Picasso and Rembrandt sketches of cats. The real felines stole the show.

After the cat museum, we browsed Bloemenmarkt (a floating flower market) for some trinkets to bring friends, family, and our little girl for her future nursery.

Obviously not my beer, but this scene was so Dutch to me, that I had to snap a photo of the Heineken in a bike basket, on a canal.

We then returned to the hotel, ate at the hotel restaurant and retired for the night early since our flight was super early out of Schiphol (nicest airport I’ve seen in a long time) to return to Paris before flying later that evening back to Lome.

After all that travel, it was sort of nice to get back to Lome. But more importantly was returning to my best little fur friend, one worth much more than 20 euros, even on his worst days.

On that note, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone that partakes. I hope you spend time with loved ones this holiday season.

Until next time,

Carrie.