Amsterdam Archives - Weary Wanderer

A very, merry happy New Year to all you lovelies 😉

It’s that time again. An introduction. A blank slate. A chance to start over, continue being amazing, set new goals, or aim to keep the old ones. AND …. it’s reflect-on-the-past-year time, too. 2025 was a good travel year, for us, with lots of love, laughs, cuddles, and adventure. Here’s what we got up to.

January

In January, Chris and I booked it to Florida for a quick 48-hours so he could run his 10th marathon. We hadn’t been away from the girls overnight in about two years, so it was really quite fun to take that time <3

Chris ran his marathon in three hours and eight seconds. LEGEND.

February

In mid-February, Steph, Rosalie and Robert flew out for President’s Weekend to celebrate Valentine’s Day and Rosalie’s 6th birthday. We had such a blast!

We checked out the Bubble Planet Immersive Experience in Denver!

Lotte, Steph & Ro got their ears pierced!

Lotte sang the National Anthem at a CU basketball game with her school choir!

March

In March we headed off to Taos, New Mexico, for spring break! It was a new state for the girls, and we had such a blast.

Pottery at the Imagine Children’s Museum was an unexpected delight.

April

I posted an ode to winter at the end of April, with highlights including lots of Lotte choir singing at fun events, art exhibits, author events (both mine and other authors!), plays, fancy tea services, tons of skiing .. and lots more!

The Maurice Sendak exhibit at the Denver Art Museum!

Easter tea at The Brown Palace in Denver was delicious!

Lotte performed with her choir for a festival and we got to hang at Elitch Gardens!

June & July

You guys. June and July were epic. We met up with all three grandparents for a month in Europe that did. not. disappoint. There was the press trip at an insane resort in Portugal. All the culture and food in Barcelona. Italy. (More specifically the Dolomites and Venice. Enough said.) Driving from the Dolomites to Paris, with a stop at the city where I was born. Paris and the French countryside. The shocking adorableness of Brugges. The out-of-this-world salty attitude of Amsterdam. And the gorgeous, glorious greenery of Ireland. It was the trip of a lifetime, to say the least.

As if that weren’t enough, when Lotte and Grace had their horse camp canceled last-minute, I booked a quick trip back East for the week before Lotte’s birthday! Grace was meant to come, too, but after a month in Europe, girl needed some R&R at home, which was totally fine. She’ll catch NY next time round!

We had a lot of good food and drinks AND a lot of time to chat, which was so much fun and so different from how it usually is. My brother-in-law was a doll and watched the twins a bunch, and Lotte & Ro entertain themselves, which left my sis and myself to our own devices on several occasions. I do not take those times for granted.

August

I wrote a farewell to the Summer of 2025 covering the final few weeks of our break before we were back-to-school. It included a birthday, camp, a visit from our NY loves and one final out-of-town trip.

Phew. What a summer it was!

Just a couple’a cuties at the Denver Zoo.

Rainbows in the mountains? Can’t beat that.

You also can’t beat a National Park. This one — Rocky Mountain National Park — is near and dear to our hearts.

September

September started with a bang when we celebrated Labor Day in our own Colorado backyard. Sunshine. Hikes. Moose. Bear. Glaciers. Lakes.

Oh, Colorado. You beautiful beast, you.

November

In November we hopped on the earliest flight possible to high-tail it to New York for the Thanksgiving holiday! We saw Wicked, had tea at the American Girl Doll store, drank hot cocoa in an igloo in Bryant Park, hung out with Bluey, deep fried a turkey … and so much more <3

Hot cocoa and cocktails in a cozy igloo by the Bryant Park ice skating rink? YES PLEASE.

December

Less than one week after getting home from our New York Thanksgiving, we were back on a plane! This time, it was to Knoxville, for the AAU Youth Track & Field Championships, which Lotte ran with her team, the Colorado Coyotes. We were so stinkin’ proud of her, I could cry. Oh and also … how cute is Knoxville?!

Then we spent Christmas in Hawaii with Chris’ parents, and it was SO FRIGGIN’ WONDERFUL!

And that was our near in a nutshell, friends! We had pretty amazing travel experiences and I never stop being grateful for all of it for even just one second.

I hope you all had a wonderful year … and cheers to an even better new one!

Hello friends — welcome to Amsterdam!

We arrived in our 9th country (the Netherlands, of which Amsterdam capital) of this trip in the late afternoon on Sunday and spent our two full days here exploring this insanely fun town. Amsterdam has a wild side, for sure, and I think because of that I enjoyed it even more.

Things we did here that I would highly recommend include:

Where we stayed: We had two triple rooms and one double room at the Conscious Hotel Museum Square, which is located a little bit away from the mayhem but still surrounded by plenty of things to do. The hotel puts a big emphasis on environmental sustainability, which is why I was drawn to booking it in the first pace. PLUS they gave me a bottle of champagne, some delicious fudge, and the sweetest note to congratulation me on Grace Retraces Her Day. How sweet is that??

And their cute little outdoor area in the back was the perfect place to toast!

Where we ate: We had breakfast at our hotel on Monday (which was great), lunch at ‘T Nieuwe Kafe and dinner at Esh Pitabar. Esh is a bit outside of the city center, but I would still highly recommend it if you love Mediterranean food, and ‘T Nieuwe Kafe was perfect for an outdoor spot right in the center of things.

Nothing but pride over here for this INSANE table of food!

What we did: A few of our favorite activities include the NEMO Science Museum (this was fantastic for kids and adults alike, we could have spent all day there!), Tony’s Chocolonely (this place is so cool! It focuses on sustainability for cocoa farmers and you can make your own chocolate bars, but it was PACKED! I would suggest going early …), the flagship LEGO store (which had everything, including trivia games and demonstrations and building stations … no wonder it had a line to get in the door!), the Sam & Julia Mouse Mansion (which is a sweet little store with model houses for a famous Sam & Julia Mouse story from Amsterdam) … and of course just wandering the streets!

The human body floor at the NEMO Museum was my favorite!

Pigeons have become a real obsession on this trip.

Such a cute little shop to add onto your Amsterdam tour!

On Tuesday we had another full day. We took a tram from our hotel to the De Plantage neighborhood of Amsterdam and had lunch at the de Plantage cafe. Then we checked out ARTIS, the Amsterdam Zoo, which was right next door. After that we hoofed it over to the Van Gogh & Rembrandt immersive experience in an old church, and had dinner at Trattoria Koevoet just a couple of streets over.

This restaurant was so beautiful, and the food was as beautiful as the atmosphere.

And the zoo is right next door! It was such a beautiful zoo, too. I would highly recommend for littles who are sick of culture and art and city life 😉

The Van Gogh & Rembrandt immersive experience was also great for kids who might not be interested/able to make it through the actual Van Gogh museum. If you really want to see some Van Gogh art, though, I would recommend the actual museum, which my in-laws did and loved.

Trattoria Koevoet is a tiny, old-school Italian restaurant with a lot of character. The food is so good. I’d recommend it after the Van Gogh immersive experience, since it’s about a four minute walk, but be sure to make reservations!

And that was it. Amsterdam in a nutshell. Tomorrow we’re off to Country No. 10, our final stop. Ireland. We are both excited and exhausted. Glad to heading home, sad for the trip to be ending. All the feelings. But for now, I look forward to exploring one final new place. Until then … bis bald, friends!