Friday Faves – Sweet Memories

 

Friday.

It’s Friday!! It’s Friday!!

I’ve had a week of playing catch up so it’s flown by.  I hope that you all have had an amazing week as well.

Some of my favorites this week are from reflections on our trip to Europe.

Amsterdam.

One of our dinner stops in Amsterdam was the Hard Rock Cafe. I know some people might think this was cheating since it is American food, but I have a love for the Hard Rock Cafe.

When we lived in Florida, we had annual passes to Universal Studios and would always eat at the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando. We even stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel once for my 25th birthday. Wow! Was it that long ago?!

My daughter has a little bear with angel wings that was a limited edition souvenir for Valentine’s Day in 2003.  I was sure I was pregnant even though it was too early to tell and bought that as a gift for her.

So I couldn’t pass up the chance to go to the Hard Rock in Amsterdam. The hubby and I opted to order the Double Dutch burger (sourced locally from Dutch Blonde d’Aquitaine cattle and finished with homemade onion jam, traditional smoked Dutch sausage and ‘Henri Willig’ mature Gouden Cheese) and the Guinness and Jameson burger and split them.  They were both amazing, but the Guinness and Jameson burger may have been the best burger I’ve ever had…. and that’s saying a lot.

We opted for Heineken… because… we were in Amsterdam! We couldn’t pass up the chance to have Heineken on tap. And we got to bring home some glasses to add to my collection.

Souvenirs.

In Paris, we did quite a bit of sightseeing. My daughter wanted to pick up a little gift for her friends.  We decided that the best place to purchase our mass produced items was at a Bouquiniste stall along the Seine. That way there would be a great memory associated with it.

The Bouquinistes are booksellers of used and antiquarian books. They have four boxes assigned to them, only one of which is allowed to contain souvenir items. Their trade along the Seine goes back to the 16th century. If I hadn’t been traveling with three teens, whose interest wanes after so long of perusing titles, I could have spent an afternoon just sifting through the treasures.

The gentleman whose stall we chose to purchase from had the best deal on trinkets.  I think this was because he was located in the middle and easy to pass.  I decided to purchase a set of coasters as well even though I’m not a fan of mass-produced merchandise. He was out there trying to earn a living and selling lower than the other stalls to achieve that, so I wanted to make a slightly higher purchase.

Paris Cafe.

One of my favorites makes me smile each time I think of it.  My husband and I have an “our cafe” in Paris. We stumbled upon it our first night in Paris. You can read more about this location in Paris in this post.

Le Relais Madeleine. 9, Rue Chevalier Saint-George.

We had checked into our room and decided to stroll down the Jardin des Tuileries.  The girlie wasn’t feeling wonderful and so we decided to grab a meal and settle in for the evening. We found this restaurant near our hotel.  The menu was in French with English below so we were hoping to run into luck and have them speak English.  They did! We had a wonderful meal and sent the kids over to the hotel while we sat outside, had a drink and watched the city life go by.

In case you haven’t been reading my blog long, my kids are 13,15, and 17 so we didn’t just send minis to the hotel. And if you look at the photo, we are on a one lane street and our hotel is the one with the black flag hanging down. The Hotel Opera Richepanse, which was a wonderful hotel that I will talk about in a future post.

We ended up back at the cafe for drinks two more of our four nights there, officially making it “our” cafe.

Laduree.

I had read that no trip to Paris would be complete without a trip to Laduree, a French bakery and sweets maker created in 1862, for some macarons.  Our final night in Paris, the hubby and I strolled along the Champs Elysses and got some macarons for all of us to taste.

I’m enjoying reliving some of the fun times as I put together my photos.  Keep checking back as I continue to share more of my newfound wanderlust on my first European vacation.

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend filled with lots of happiness.

Music.

Lastly, I leave you with a song that I am loving this week.

I’m not gonna lie.  It’s mostly because I love Chris Martin’s voice.  Way back when my ringtone used to be “Yellow”. I’m not sure I’ve heard a song that he sings that I don’t love.  Pair him with The Chainsmokers and how could you not love this song:

 

Let your light shine!

Amy