Amsterdam with kids

Last April we went for a long weekend to Amsterdam. Mr.A and I had been there a few years ago to meet up with friends. We had had a great time browsing art at the Rijksmuseum, walking the streets, bridges & canals following an audio tour by our favorite – Rick Steves & getting a glimpse of the happening night life. A solemn experience was the visit to the Anne Frank house. We could say we had covered most of the significant features of the beautiful city but had majorly missed out on the legendary tulips at Keukenhof. Plus, we wanted to experience Amsterdam with LittleA this time & hoped to still love it. & still love it, we did 🙂

Keukenhof Gardens

This was spring and the gardens were in full bloom. Flowers everywhere! It was a joy to be there and take in all the beauty. Even though LittleA was just a few months over three, we can see the tulips made an impact on her too as every time Amsterdam comes up within her earshot, she is sure to mention tulips or garden 🙂 So cool that we could make a beautiful early memory together for her to cherish.

The Upside Down

This is a must see, not only if you are into social media like Instagram or Tiktok, but also if you love quirky, unusual things. A lot of fluorescent colors, neon lights, illusions, funky mirrors, an entire swimming pool full of plastic balls, a walk-in closet with a wardrobe full of flashy clothes to play dress-up, half of an airplane, yeah the list goes on! The cafe is a cute place to sit down too, with a bunch of equally snap-worthy colorful sandwiches. We sure smiled a lot & took way too many pictures 😀

Amstelpark

We stayed at the Novotel Hotels which was right across this park so we took a stroll expecting to simply find some greenery & open spaces but pleasantly surprised by the extras we found. A little open train chugged along and for 3euros a ride, took us around the park at a leisurely pace. We then came by a petting zoo and a mini amusement section for the kids, complete with a merry-go-round, a toy-train for children, a set of toy cars & lots of bubbles, ice cream and cotton candy. Could one ask for more?!

Canal Cruise

We took a canal cruise to catch a different perspective of the city. It was a balmy afternoon, lazy sunshine and the quiet laps of water accompanied a gentle audio guide onboard pointing out buildings & landmarks of significance. Very pleasant indeed. On the other hand, the banks were alive with action, people had come out in droves, also to enjoy the sun, but mostly with a beer in hand. We even saw a bunch of people fishing out a bike from the water!

Malaga murals

Seeking out magical murals with Mr.A on the sunny streets of Malaga this summer… perfect vacation treasure hunt 🙂

 

You may also like other posts about street art from:

• Street art from Melbourne
• The Icelandic capital, Reykjavik
• Zagreb, from my road-trip through Croatia two summers ago
• The East Side Gallery, some remains of the Berlin Wall
• Stockholm, a city with a strict view on graffiti
• Copenhagen’s Freetown Christiania
• Lively neighborhoods of Plaka & Monastikari in Athens
• Graffiti on the by-lanes of Barcelona

Travel checklist : 2017

It’s no secret, we at Sunny District LOVE to travel. Couldn’t have stressed that any more, could I?! We have an endless list of must-go places and we are going about checking them off one at a time. Early each year, we scout the calendar for long weekends and bank holidays attempting to max out on all available opportunities. We match the available dates with the places on our wishlist and look for the best match of dates against cheap flights. It’s worked out pretty well for us to plan & book ahead this way. For the last couple of years, I have been publishing a travel round up of all the places Mr.A and I visited during the year. Do you remember these? Go ahead, take a look 🙂

Travel checklist : 2015

Travel checklist : 2016

Thrice in a row means a tradition, doesn’t it? So here comes the 3rd installment in Sunny District’s traditional travel round-up series! It’s a ten on ten 💯 😀

1. Vienna and Salzburg, Austria
   

   

   
2. Venice, Italy
   

   

   
3. St.Petersburg, Russia
   

   

   
4. Paris, France
   

   

   
5. Gdansk and Sopot, Poland
   

   

   
6. Aiya Napa and Paphos, Cyprus
   

   

   
7. Ljubljana, Bled and Slovenia’s coastal towns
   

   

   
8. London, England
   

   

   
9. Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE
   

   

   
10. Kyiv/ Kiev, Ukraine
    

    

    

I’d love to hear about the amazing places you discovered this year! Have you been to any of the ones we visited? What did you think of them? Was there something that pleasantly surprised you or was there anything that did not live up to your expectations? I’m so curious to know! Let’s get talking in the comments 🙂

Hugs,
Bipasha 🤗

Postcards from Dubai

Last day of the year! Here I am wrapping up a week in Dubai… I’ll tell you all about my trip, but first, a little sneak peek 😎

Thank you all for showing me so much love this year 💖 Wish you an amazing 2018!

Hugs from Sunny District 🤗

Two trips to Paris

This post was inspired by a recent post by my blogger friend Bri, in her own words, ‘a 22 year old with an intense need to see the world.’ Read all about her adventures at A Little Slice of Bri. Cool name, right?! But wait a sec, and this might sound a bit strange to many, but Bri hates Paris!

What? How could someone hate Paris, right? But when I read Bri’s post about why she hates Paris, I started reflecting upon my own visits to Paris on two separate occasions. I was quite close to having a disastrous first trip myself & might have completely agreed with her if I hadn’t been saved by one more day on my first visit, and with the second trip this year, a very happy one at that 🙂

The first time I arrived in Paris was the day after Mr.A had returned from a trip to China, so the poor guy was totally messed up in terms of body clock 😦 Plus, we booked cheap flights between Stockholm & Paris, which meant we had to fly to and from airports far outside of the city viz. Skavsta outside of Stockholm and Beauvais on the outskirts of Paris. Unfortunately, we hadn’t accounted for the additional travel time 😦 So we arrived  at our hotel by mid-day, already tired. Hotel rooms in Paris are not my favorite, they are tiny and cramped up, and you’d have to shell out a lot for a relatively small improvement. Nonetheless, we ended up spending a lot of time sleeping off the fatigue on the day we arrived. We were going to spend only the weekend; to my dismay one day was already gone! So my first day in Paris was quite in tune with yours, Bri!

But we decided that Sunday was going to be different. Totally refreshed, we cashed in on  all the major sights with the help of the L’Open Tours hop-on-hop-off bus. The Louvre is enormous and grand but we didn’t spend too much time there. We prioritized the Mona Lisa, but it was too small and too many tourists like ourselves were trying to get a closer look. The irony, I know! It was a bit disappointing, but that’s what I mostly hear from fellow travelers, so no surprise there. It was fun to take the quintessential illusory photos at the Pyramid, though. Up at the Eiffel Tower, the view was enjoyable, and I liked the modern history around it’s construction. We rode the bus along Champs-Élysées to the end of Place Charles de Gaulle. It was interesting to draw parallels between the Arc de Triomphe and similar arches in other cities (I wrote a guest post on A Date with Delhi, inspired by that visit.) A high point of the day was the grand Notre-Dame Cathedral.  Even better, we finished the day with a really nice dinner with a classmate from our Manila days. We were exhausted by the end, but it wasn’t so bad after all 🙂

The second time around, however, things were looking up. Earlier this year we celebrated the wedding of that same friend in Paris! It’s not just that I’m slightly biased because this couple is dear to me, but I do believe theirs was one of the most beautiful and romantic weddings I’ve ever been to. On a bonus we got to hang out with a bunch of other friends who studies with Mr.A and me at B-school in Manila. It was an absolute joy to reconnect after so many years – a mini reunion of sorts. Thanks to the bride, we also got to spend a day at Disney Land Paris, trying out all the thrilling rides! Back in the city, we followed one of Rick Steves’ audio guides and walked by the Seine river at a leisurely pace, going back to the Notre-Dame Cathedral during the day and watching the shimmering Eiffel Tower (from a little distance away) at night.

I honestly think our company affected our mood the second trip in a hugely positive manner. And it does take a lot of things to click together to bring about an aha! feeling, but only a couple of negatives can spoil an entire trip. So I would say, why not give Paris a second chance, and never say never 🙂

[On a side note, if you haven’t tried out the Rick Steves’ Europe guides, I would highly recommend giving it a go. You can use the app to use it on the go & enjoy many a nook & corner that regular guide books do not provide. They are extremely well researched and thoroughly enjoyable. I’ve tried different guides in Rome, Florence, Salzburg, Vienna, Prague, Berlin and many others, and never been disappointed. Nope, he didn’t pay me to say all that, I am a true fan 😉 ]