Dam Square
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 in Park Güell
If you Google Barcelona, you will definitely find your search results are filled with photos of Park Güell. You can’t really think of Barcelona without the architect Antoni Gaudí coming to mind. His distinctive style of Catalan Modernism is so unique and magical. So colorful and whimsical!
Walking downtown
After graduation, we headed back to the apartment to shower and nap before heading back out into town. Never could and will get used to 35 degree heat, so better to be back in the airconditioned apartment during the hottest part!
We went for a walk along La Rambla, having dinner at Cèntric Raval – feasting on cocktails and tapas! It’s only about 10 minutes away from the busy street, but as you leave Las Ramblas and head toward the café you enter a more residential area and get away a bit from the rest of the tourists.
Casa Milà, aka La Pedrera
You can’t really think of Barcelona without the architect Antoni Gaudí coming to mind. His distinctive style of Catalan Modernism is so unique and magical. So colorful and whimsical!
Exploring Sleep Mode: The Art of the Screensaver
When I found out our friend Rafaël had an exhibition in Rotterdam at Het Nieuwe Instituut, Koen and I planned a trip to see Chris and Hannah so we could all go together. Definitely worth visiting if you’re planning a trip to Rotterdam in the next months – we had so much fun!
Carnaby Street in Soho
While in London, I did a lot of exploring in the City of Westminster. What is the City of Westminster? It’s an inner-city London borough, but also holds city status. Confused? Me, too. Almost any London site you can think of is in City of Westminster.
St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel London
The last few times I’ve been in London have been for work, not really for sight-seeing. But this time Koen needed to go London for work, so I tagged along and was able to do some exploring – including the neighborhood where we stayed – King’s Cross, while Koen was in meetings and conferences.
Life-size Gundam Statue
For our second to last day, Koen and I explored Odaiba, an artificial island in southern Tokyo. We had beautiful weather and enjoyed walking along the water. Turns out there was a dance competition while we were there, so we bought some street food and watched the show!
Daily morning coffee in Harajuku at The Roastery by Nozy Coffee
We were in Japan for 3 weeks, the first week in Tokyo, a week of travel, then the last week again in Tokyo. The first week we stayed in east Tokyo in the neighborhood of Ginza, so we wanted to have a different experience for our last week – Harajuku in west Tokyo!
On our way to the Studio Ghibli Museum
Visiting the Ghibli Museum was one of our tops things we wanted to do while in Tokyo! We didn’t realize how difficult it is to secure tickets (you should purchase them many months ahead of time and you can’t buy them on site). Luckily, after some online searching, we were able to secure two tickets – even though we paid 5x the normal price. But worth it!
An American in Antwerp 