December 26, 2014 -- Each year Amsterdam organizes a light show to illuminate its beautiful canals and streets with artwork. It is a fun [free] exhibit and it gives you an extra reason to go out and explore this charming city. We ventured out last year, but only managed to find a few (quite weird) installments. This year proved more successful.

We've been saying that we should go check out the lights for a couple weeks now, but between Jon's long hours at work and our busy weekend adventures we never made it out. Last night we decided to bundle up in our warmest coat and hit the streets. Installments have been positioned all over the city but we focused our attention on the handful near the Amstel River.
November 30, 2014 -- After a successful Thanksgiving dinner from the night before, Sarah and I were looking for a way to walk off the over-eating and recover from food coma. Winter had descended on Amsterdam so we set our sights on the Hermitage Museum to escape the cold weather.

Hermitage Amsterdam is a branch of the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg. It occupies a beautiful building on the Amstel, although sees far less foot traffic than its world class neighbors a few kilometers away: the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh museum and Stedelijk modern art museum. I've really grown to appreciate the Hermitage and its hidden charm. It took us more than a year of living here before walking through the halls of the Hermitage, but now we've been twice this month.
November 1 - 11, 2014 -- This was the trip that Jon and I had been looking forward to all year. We started the planning when we were home last December, and it all seemed to pay off. We might be a bit biased, but it seems as though our intimate gathering of friends and family enjoyed their time as well. We have a specific few {mentioned below} that we will forever be indebted to for all their efforts. They put so much into our day and the whole celebration came together beautifully!




October 3-5, 2014 -- After a busy summer of traveling through central Europe, Sarah and I booked a weekend getaway to Stockholm. It was early October and fall colors were popping up everywhere around Amsterdam, so we were hopeful to have a laid-back weekend of turning leaves, farmers markets and Scandinavian culture.

For a capital city, Stockholm seemed light on noteworthy landmarks and site seeing. We've become pretty efficient travelers but even with a relaxed pace we managed to see much of the city in one day (albeit with a ton of walking because Stockholm is fairly spread out). We admittedly skipped the museums because none really caught our interest, and we were a little burned out after a full summer of museum tours. On a return trip we would likely add visits to the contrasting Warship and Nobel museums, along with a cruise of the Swedish archipelago in warmer weather.

We booked a room in the up-and-coming Södermalm neighborhood, which sits on an island just south of the city center and has labeled itself a hipster mecca. The streets are lined with coffee shops, vintage clothing stores and bars, but it seemed like an island of misfits rather than hipster mecca. The fashion was more nineties grunge than hipster, a coffee chain from Seattle poured the best espresso on the island, and the bars were mostly college hangouts (with patrons puking outside on the sidewalks).

  

Södermalm


We discovered a hidden secret of Stockholm... CINNAMON ROLLS! The Swedish recipe includes cardamon which is a surprisingly perfect ingredient. We happened to be visiting on World Cinnamon Roll day, so we celebrated with half a dozen of these tasty treats.




We took this photograph from inside the courtyard of the City Hall. Nearly 8 million bricks were used in the structure.

Shades of red on City Hall. The ivy, brickwork and roof capturing the colors of fall.




Swedish hard candies
On Saturday we found farmers markets scattered across the city at the major squares. With an overabundance of fresh cranberries and golden Chanterelle mushrooms, we would have loved cooking a few of the local recipes.
As you might imagine, Sweden's military was once a powerful presence in the days of the Vikings through to WWII. But with the only real threat of modern times being mysterious Russian submarines off its coastal waters, the military probably has a fair amount of free time on its hands. Here we watched the daily changing of the guard parade through the streets. 





Old school horse trough.



A trip to Stockholm wouldn't be complete without a plate of Swedish Meatballs

Tracing the roots of our favorite department store







  
Our guidebook cited this as the world's oldest lighted advertisement


  


And for a random fact: In Sweden it is illegal to name your child Ikea. 
September 26-27, 2014 -- With summer quickly going into hibernation and the cold Dutch weather following behind, we decided to take the weekend to explore the changing colors and drive through the Netherlands countryside.

 { Groningen }
We started on Friday with a trip to the northern part of the country through Friesland and the college town of Groningen. Unfortunately my morning was interrupted by unplanned conference calls as we walked through the quiet streets.

August 2014 -- We have been Holland residents for a full year! Time has flown by and we cannot believe that we are on the back nine of our adventure. While we are definitely getting the hang of things, the occasional surprises still manage to keep us on our toes. Jon and I have been writing down the "little things" that we love about Dutch life and those other things that we could do without.

It's a slight departure from our usual travel posts, but we thought it was a good time to reflect on our experiences over the past year.

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