August, you're too good to us!

It recently dawned on me how ideal the entire month of August is in The Netherlands. The warm weather and late nights allow a plethora of outdoor events around town. These are some of our favorite events of the year.

So if you are in The Netherlands in August, be sure to plan your trip around these each of these foodie fairs/movie/festivals:

Amsterdam

World Cinema Film Fest Openair - Over three long weekends, this film festival features foreign film viewings each night in the openair at Marie Heinekenplein or the Vondelpark Openair Theater.

Best part: it's free! 

Pluk de Nacht Film Festival - I'm obsessed with this 10-day event. They set up shop right near the water, sell Belgium beer, have a couple of food trucks and have cute beach chairs to rent. Arrive early and you can score a spot right in front of the screen. Each film night starts around sunset with a short film and a feature film followed by a DJ until past midnight. 

Best part: it's also free! 

De Parade traveling circus

Tons of food stalls, mini theaters every few meters, stringy lights and a make-your-own-poffertjes stand means this traveling circus the last 2 weeks of August is one of our all-time favorite Amsterdam events.

Entrance is 7.50 EUR...but well worth it!

Lounging along the Amstel River

Grab a BBQ, some friends and some drinks and head straight to the Amstel. People camp out on the edge of the water for hours and enjoy some of the most beautiful sunsets in Amsterdam.

Maastricht

Preuvenemint - one of the biggest events of the year in South Limburg at the very bottom of The Netherlands. Maastricht's main square, 't Vrijtof, is converted into a big foodie and wine extravaganza! Makes for a great weekend trip ;)

If you're not in The Netherlands in August, you're still in luck! Check out my guest post over at Eyes/Ears/Mouth+Lens for my 48-hour weekend guide to Amsterdam!

{Openair movies + ice cream...what else ya need?}

{Yumminess + theater at De Parade in Amsterdam}

{Preuvenimint in Maastricht}

{Sunset along the Amstel, Amsterdam}

Maastricht Wedding!

Oy oy oy...after a full-day of wedding festivities in and around Maastricht last Friday, Christian and I slept the weekend away. The wedding was so beautiful and gezellig (that's 'cozy' in Dutch!), we got to see every bit from beginning to end.

Gorgeous wedding. Awesome couple. Intimate family dinner in a Belgian B&B. And a party with family and friends that lasted until the early morning hours!

Here are some of my favorite pics!! Which increasingly got more blurry as the evening continued...I blame it on the open bar ;)...I love Dutch weddings!

{Christian's nieces are the cutest! And are twins...we have twins too...weird twin thing goin on!}

{Brothers of the groom!}

Wedding Bells in Maastricht!

Yay yay yay! My twin sis got married last year and now Christian’s twin brother is getting married tomorrow!! I first met these two lovebirds a few weeks after I met Christian in Finland in 2007 when they came to visit him. We went cross-country skiing (it was -25 outside, people!), lounged in a Finnish sauna and walked on snowy frozen lakes. We’ve done a lot of cool stuff with these two: celebrated Carnival in Maastricht, spent weekends in Amsterdam, roadtripped around the southwest of the US, showed them their first American-style Thanksgiving with my family in California, city-tripped to Istanbul, etc.

Christian and I are so damn excited that we’ve been dancing around the house to this song all week.  It will be a full day of family and wedding activities in Maastricht (in the south of the Netherlands) which will culminate in a big party at a farmhouse just across the border in Belgium. Francois and Danielle are travel nuts too and will honeymoon in New Zealand for a month after this upcoming wedding weekend (I'm so jealous, they know how to plan amazing holidays, too). I'm pretty excited that they will now be my family too!

In about an hour we’re off to Limburg to kick off the festivities!! 

{Night out with the soon-to-be-newlyweds in Finland after I first met them! And still my favorite picture of them}

{The four of us cross-country skiing in Finland}

{The four of us a few years later in Istanbul, Turkey}