A week-end full of emotions. That would be a perfect summary of what we have just lived.

First of all, we got married. Yay! We’ve been together for about 8 years now, and after a little less than a year of brainstorming about it, questioning a crazy amount of possibilities, we answered the most easy question ; So HOW do we want to do this? What is is that we want to do? This was a bit of a hassle at first. Family? Friends? Food? Flowers?

We stripped it all down to the core and we thought about it like true essentialists. From then on, the answer was easy. We wanted to get married, to celebrate it somewhere else than here in Luxembourg,  just the two of us.  Nothing else.

The whole procedure was such a funny experience (as you can see from this photo!). Our wedding was so low profile that the mayor thought we were a couple of early coming photographers instead of the real to-be-married couple! No cheesy wedding dress, nothing unrealistic, just us two casual human beings taking a big step together. We were in quite a hurry, as the wedding was in the late afternoon. The idea was to leave early so that we could drive away and enjoy our first cosy stay in Maastricht before heading out for diner there. Then spend the rest of the weekend in Amsterdam!

Our first hotel in Maastricht didn’t forget about the little “Just Married” mention we left while booking the room! They thoughtfully decorated our bed with cute paper letters. The place itself looked really lovely as it was actually a renovated barn house, so it had a lofty feel to it and many refreshing interior details like white walls, copper pipes, furniture made of concrete or up-cycled wood… This cute spot was the perfect place to start our weekend and although it was located in a very remote place in the border of Maastricht, it was very easy for us to get to the city from there. We spent our first evening strolling around the city, we had some sushi (our favourite food in the world) and we felt very romantic! It felt different and very special walking around together as “husband & wife”.

On the next day, we drove to Amsterdam and we had already thought of a nice spot to have lunch. We parked our car at the Heineken factory (in the awesome De Pijp area) and walked through a giant flea market, between thousands of bikes, hundreds of shops, to finally reach SLA. This healthy food spot had a beautiful and calm interior, and we enjoyed some really tasty salad bowls.

Another great place we found that day was The Gather Shop. Linda had been following them on instagram for ages, and it was fun to finally get to see it in real life. The interior was so minimal & inspiring, just the way we like it. The products displayed were also exactly “our thing”: Kinfolk magazines, minimal poster prints, simple jewellery, natural cosmetics, pretty books and lots of plants (tiny succulents in tiny holders!). We also met the shop owner, Jessica, who was a very sweet person and who we obviously shared many common interests & inspirations 🙂

The Inntel Hotel in Zaandam was one of the things we were really looking forward to. This hotel has a distinct and unique architecture. We were however a little (very) disappointed by the lack of generosity from what the hotel had to offer when we first entered our room. Things weren’t as we expected and that killed our mood a little bit as we had splurged way more money than we normally would for accommodation. Our budget range is usually far lower but we had saved some money to indulge in a nice experience. It was all supposed to feel like a treat and instead it was pretty basic, but we decided not to get our mood killed. So we spoke to the manager and they took care of setting up the biggest room they had for our second night, filling it with goodies. That made us feel a lot better 🙂

We found fake rose petals on the bed. That made us have a good laugh!!! However, we clearly enjoyed a lot of the indoor pool, steam room, private sauna and a big whirlpool bathtub. Sometimes these things are a little cheesy… But sometimes they feel just right and enjoyable. That made us feel like a King and Queen.

The train startion was two minutes away from the hotel, so we decided to go back to the city and enjoy the best of what Amsterdam has to offer. Great shops with nice designs, awesome places to have dinner and of course, coffeeshops. Why get drunk and have headache the day after if you can enjoy something a bit more natural, legally? (And now you know how we like to celebrate on special occasions) 😉

The evening was long. Very long. After sleeping like two cuddle bugs and enjoying our breakfast at the hotel, we rushed back to the center of Amsterdam. The sun was constantly interrupted by some rain drops. Classic weather just like in Luxembourg.

We delayed lunch a lot because of the huge breakfast we had but still ended up having late lunch at Pluk. Another great spot to visit if you’re around! Again, if you like it minimal, clean and simple, you will love it like we did. We enjoyed some fruity acai bowls and vegan sandwiches with cashew cream. Yummy!

Amsterdam is definitely a great city. So far, I haven’t visited a place with so much variety. It’s so big and it has so much to offer that we are really looking forward to come back. Probably much longer than this time. But even a short trip to Amsterdam is always worth it.

Our favourite spots in Amsterdam (mentioned in this post):

• Pluk – Cozy place with healthy & tasty food
• Sla – Trendy salad bar with lots of creative stuff
• The Gathershop – Amazing little shop full of interesting finds for home decor and more.

And if you ever go to Maastricht for a night (like us) or more, stay at le Rêve. We highly recommend it!