This Sweet Life

My family in Paris, December 2005 I visited Paris a few years ago with my family and I was disappointed.  It just wasn't all the hype that I expected it would be.  I told myself that I would come back one day for a re-do and to fully immerse myself in the city, but next time it would be with my husband.  I thought that maybe there was this romance-aspect of the city that I was missing. Our first night in Paris was actually quite perfect.  We enjoyed a long walk downtown and enjoyed our sunset picnic dinner in front of the Eiffel Tower.  The weather was perfect, it wasn't nearly as crowded as I had expected, and it was a very relaxing and enjoyable time together.   We stayed until it was dark and the lights turned on, and we walked to the other side of the tower at night.  Maybe I had missed the romance-aspect before, Paris was definitely bringing out the romance in us! Food- The food in Paris was delicious.  From crepes, qu...

Five years ago, I started following "Travelandleisure" on Instagram and an absolutely beautiful photo of a city I had never heard of popped up on my feed.  I immediately began googling "BRUGES/BRUGGE", found out it was in Belgium, and I have wanted to come to this little gem on the globe since then.   After being on my travel radar for years, it didn't feel real that I was in Bruges. I couldn't wait to explore this city! I still can't get over this place, it was so beautiful!  It is full of history that dates back to the first century BC where the original buildings were built to protect the city against pirates.  It spared destruction while being occupied by the Germans during WWI and WWII and most of it's medieval architecture remains intact today.   The people of Bruges were kind and went out of their way to help you.  Bruges is known for chocolates and antique lace and I enjoyed checking out all the little shops.  One bite of...

First Impressions are almost always wrong.... Day #1 Amsterdam and myself got off to a rough start.  The train situation from Bruges to Amsterdam was rather confusing and due to our language barrier, we ended up on the wrong train.  We had booked specific time slots for the Anne Frank museum, so we rushed from Central Station to the museum! We had all of our bags, walking down cobblestone, meandering through pedestrians/bikes/cars and almost getting run over by a cyclist, twice.  Within 10 minutes, I had almost caused a bike accident pile-up and was called a "moron" and an "idiot tourist".  Luckily we made it to the museum, but we had to rush through as we had to take turns watching our luggage since we didn't have time to go by our hotel.  The Anne Frank House is something I have wanted to visit since I was in the 4th grade and found out that doing so was possible.  Like I have stated, there is just something fascinating about WWII and her diary had ...