Meanwhile in London

I am guilty of mostly only posting about the other places we go and I have been meaning to post about some of our London adventures as well. 

One huge thing that has happened in London is one of my very best friends, Kate and her husband Jay moved to London in May! We feel so lucky to have one of our favorite couples here in London with us to share this amazing experience. Jays job moved him here for a few years as well. We found out London could be an option for them right   at the same time we found out Matts company was offering him the opportunity so I looked at it as a great sign and potential opportunity to have great friends there. They live in our building so it has been great to have there, like a little piece of home! 

Below are pictures from the past few months around London:

Taken right outside Matts office, he has a great view of the HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge.

Maltby Market is a cool market with lots of food stands right by our apartment that is open every Sat and Sunday.

A March day where it was warm enough to have brunch outside with a view!

Brunch view from Browns at Butlers Wharf 

Exploring our neighborhood with Kate who came to visit in March to scope out areas to live

Southbank

Portobello Market in Notting Hill is a huge street market with great shopping from antiques and clothes to food.

Notting Hill houses

Scotch Egg from Tanner & Co....yum!

Drinks at The Kings Arms- our favorite local pub.

The London Marathon went right by our building and we enjoyed watching it from our balcony.

Cronuts from the Harrods food court (most amazing food court ever!)

In the throne chairs at a martini bar

Scotch Egg selection at Maltby Market

Grilling out on Memorial Day

We kept it American with burgers, fries, pasta salad and ever Coors Light!

On the train to Cambridge for the Cambridge Beer Festival 

Cambridge Beer Festival 

Delicious spread and Bar Tozino

Stopped to snuggle with a dog in a bicycle basket in Bermondsey

Borough Market- prosciutto fresh off the bone! 

We took a daytrip to Stonehenge and Bath (just a couple hours outside of London).

View of Bath on the way there

Bath House

We went to the London Eye with Whitney and Matt with they were visiting. It was our first time there and the views were amazing!

The rooftop bar at Oxo

Being tourists in our city

Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace

Care/Birthday package from my amazingly wonderful mother in law!! She knows what we have been missing :)

Amsterdam

We spent June 14-16 in Amsterdam with our friends, Whitney and Matt. Whitney is a good friend of mine from high school and she and her husband Matt were our first visitors from across the pond! They stayed with us in London and we joined them on a trip to Amsterdam (they also visited Paris and Brussels). 

Amsterdam was so much more than I was expecting! I guess with it being known for pot and the red light district I expected it to be a party city and maybe even a little seedy which was not the case at all! It was a BEAUTIFUL city and everywhere you walked around the city was an amazing view of canals, adorable Dutch houses and quaint streets. 

We rented an amazing house from airbnb in the Jordaan area with a great living room with retractable ceiling where we enjoyed hanging out every night. We arrived early afternoon on Saturday and immediately went out to explore.

We had dinner at Cafe Sonneveld, I had the Dutch Stew- very yummy:

Then we did a very small guided tour of the Red Light District which was very interesting and informative to say the least. Of course no photos are allowed of the girls but I did sneakily snap this one of one of the alleys where the girls were in the windows.

We ended the tour at a small bar where we hung out with our guide for a bit and asked any questions etc. It was a great, informative and discreet way to see the Red Light District and learn how this was a legitimate profession and industry in Amsterdam.

Sunday we started off our day with lunch at The Pancake Bakery which was amazing. Anything you could imagine baked into your pancake! Bacon and egg below:

 Then we went by the Anne Frank House:

And on a canal cruise:

We had drinks at the DoubleTree SkyBar with great views.

We had dinner at a restaurant in the Jordaan area and hung out in pir rental house. 

Monday Matt and Whitney left for Paris and Matt and I just walked around Amsterdam and got lunch before our flight. We have 2 other trips to Amsterdam planned before the end of the year with other visitors and we had such a great time that we are very much looking forward to going back!