Koen and I were invited to the Animalia Amsterdam photo exhibition opening in Amsterdam. For over a year, Isabella Rozendaal photographed the pets of Amsterdam and they’re now on display in the Amsterdam City Archives from July 14th to September 3rd. Isabella is the sister-in-law of my best friend Christina and I’ve loved all the photos she’s posted on Facebook and Instagram, so Koen and I were excited to see the prints in person! We also bought her book!

Koen’s sister Nikki lives in Amsterdam, so we arrived early to spend the day with her. We’re not so often in Amsterdam and we had a lot of fun walking around the city and eating at some of Nikki’s favorite places!

To start we ate lunch at Lavinia Good Food, for a healthy start to the trip!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we went for a walk before settling on coffee at Zuivere Koffie. We were able to secure a table outside on their patio. Nice and cozy!

 

 

After coffee, we walked a bit more with Nikki before leaving for the opening. I loved that animals were allowed! We had some of the pets in photos many times, in fact we bought a print of one of the dogs, and then to see them in real life was like seeing a celebrity! At the opening Isabella also discussed the project and her inspiration. I really recommend going if you’re in Amsterdam in the next few months!

 

 

 

 

Before heading back to Antwerp, we couldn’t pass up a bowl of ramen from Tokyo Ramen Takeichi! Definitely worth visiting if you’re visiting Amsterdam – it’s the first Japanese restaurant in the city to come directly from Japan (or at least according to their website!). To quote about their ramen:

“Our ramen is made of chicken. Our secret recipe using long time simmering and stewing of chicken, creates a creamy white soup that is very low in fat and contains healthy ingredients in terms of vitamins, minerals and collagen necessary for the human body. Especially collagen is well known to be vital for the human skin replacing dead skin cells & maintaining elasticity of tendons.”