Hello everybody, I’m sorry I hardly posted anything in the past 2 weeks. It has just been so busy with moving houses and with getting used to being in a new place. Also, since a week I own a little piglet, that I saved from a pig farm. So the last week has been crazy crazy, with looking after him. Especially because he was (and still is a bit) very ill. He’s still very up and down, what makes me very stressed. Anyway, that was the reason why I wasn’t that active here. I’ll try to post more regularly again from now on. I just have to organise it all a little better and find a new routine. I did promise you to tell you all about my travels to the Netherlands in October and I’ve got some lovely new hotspots for you, so there we go.

I left quite early in the morning on Friday the 13th (ah oh! ..haha!) to Stansted Airport. My favourite airport to fly from and to when it comes to London. Everything went well and I had some spare time to get a Starbucks before boarding. I flew to Eindhoven, what means I had to travel another 3 hours by train from there to Assen. I actually really like this, because I can just look out of the window and relax. My mum was there to pick me up. One of the reasons I was coming to the Netherlands this time, is because my mum bought a little house and I wanted to see it of course. It’s he cutest little bungalow with an amazing garden. I love it a lot! My nephew came in the end of the day, because he was coming with us to Amsterdam the next day. So lovely to see him. That night we had to sleep at my mum’s work. For the people who don’t know, my mum works at Rikus. Rikus is a hotel-restaurant n Eext. Normally the lady who does the vegetable gardens lives above Rikus, but as she was on holiday and there needs to be somebody in the building at night, my mum slept in her house. We actually slept there for 3 nights. It’s an amazing apartment! I love it so much! Apart from the location and that it’s above a hotel, I’d totally see myself living there. In the evening we watched the movie White Chicks with the 3 of us and then went to sleep. As we had to wake up early to travel to the capital.

We caught the 7:30 train and about 2 hours later we got out at Amsterdam Central. Amsterdam is such a lovely city. We came here for 2 things. First of all we were visiting my mum’s friend and second I met Lisa (from the blog Lisa Goes Vegan) to give her the key of my flat. Lisa will live in my flat for a month, after I moved to the country side. She will work on her second book there, what is so cool. I wish her all the best! First of all I wanted to visit this place called ‘Koffie ende Koeck’. I heard so many nice things about this, that I wanted to see it for myself. Koffie ende Koeck is such a lovely cafe and 100% vegan! Yay! My mum had a cappuccino with oat milk, I (of course) ordered a chai latte and my nephew wanted a yummy tropical smoothie. I also ordered a croissant and my mum tried their brownie. It was all super delicious, though my mum did say the cappuccino could have been a bit hotter. We walked everything this day and so we passed a lot of nice looking hotspots too. We didn’t have time (and enough space in our stomach) to go everywhere, but I will mention them in the hotspot list.

We walked all the way to Olive&Cookie. This is a very nice little restaurant, run by two lovely people. It was actually closed, but because my mum’s friends knows them well, they opened the restaurant especially for us, whilst they were preparing some catering. Because you can also hire them for catering. It was so nice. Lovely to meet them all and the food.. wohw! This was such delicious food! If you get the chance, please go here and you’ll know what I mean. It’s all vegetarian, but there are also a lot of vegan dishes. They made me pastries filled with lentils and veggies, there was crispy sweet potato (I could have eaten all by myself), beetroot salad and an amazing chickpeas salad. As a dessert they made me not one, but two cupcakes. Most delicious an I ate them both, haha! This is the kind of food you do not want to swallow, because it feels so good in your mouth. I will definitely come back for this. Then we met Lisa, fairy close to there, at The Meets. A very nice eatery with several healthy vegan things on the menu. We all had a fresh coconut, what was super delicious. It was lovely to meet Lisa as we do not only share the same name, but we’re both bloggers and have a passion for veganism. She’s such a lovely girl and I’m super happy to have her in my flat. This way it feels like I gradually move from London, even though I don’t live there anymore whilst she is there. On our way back to the station we passed several amazing hotspots. Amsterdam really is more up coming. There are new hotspots every time I visit. At the station my nephew and I ordered a portion of fries, because Smullers (a snackbar you can find on almost any big train station) now offers vegan mayonnaise. I obviously had to try that. It was a lovely day in Amsterdam.

On Sunday we took a new family picture. So everybody came to my mum’s place and we took a lovely picture in the garden. It was very nice to have everybody together. After we went to the snackbar to have lunch (didn’t I have fries yesterday already? Oops!). On Monday my mum and I went to my dad’s house in the forest and we had a drink on the terrace in the nearby village. We also went to the COOP supermarket to get some Vivera products. Mainly to take them home to London. Vivera is a very nice Dutch brand, that does sell in London, but only a small selection. Now I was finally be able to try their new vegan fish burger for example. It was very yum! On our way back we stopped the car to collect some chestnuts. Later that evening I put them in the oven and my mum, my brother and I were enjoying them, until my brother and I both discovered one with a maggot in it. You kind of lose your appetite then. I felt mostly bad for putting them in the oven though.

I needed to have some new jeans and a shop I always find some good ones is C&A. So my mum and I went to Emmen to do some shopping and lucky me, I did find 2 pair of new jeans. When we finished we went to see my sister in Hoogeveen, because she just moved houses too and I wanted to see her new house of course. A lovely house, with so much space. What is good, because there is a third baby on the way.. I will become an aunty again next year April, yay! On our way back we stopped by my aunt and uncle and my cousin Blessing. I love Blessing very much. Poor him though, because he had broken his arm at football practice. So we brought him some treats. So lovely to see them all. On Wednesday I went to see my grandparents (I always visit them whenever I’m in the Netherlands) and on Thursday I went back home again. Home for only one more night, as I moved houses the next day.

HOTSPOT LIST:
Rikus – Hotel-Restaurant – Hoofdstraat 10, 9463 PC Eext.
Koffie ende Koek – Cafe – Haarlemmerweg 175, 1051 LA Amsterdam.
Juice Brothers + Van Leeuwen – Juice & Ice Cream – Haarlemmerplein 43, 1013 Amsterdam.
SLA – Salad bar – Westerstraat 34, 1015 MK Amsterdam.
Impression – Painting studio – Van Beuningenplein 1, 1051 VS Amsterdam.
Olive & Cookie – Restaurant – Saenredamstraat 67, 1072 CD Amsterdam.
The Meets – Eatery – Cornelis Troostplein 3, 1072 JJ Amsterdam.
Mastino – Pizzaria – Eerste van der Helststraat 78 hs, 1072 NZ Amsterdam.
Vegan Junk Food Bar – Restaurant – Staringplein 22, 1054 VL Amsterdam.
Smullers – Snackbar – Amsterdam Centraal (+ many more train stations).

Have you been to any of these hotspots yet? Or are you really excited to go now? I would love to hear about your trip and experiences! You can leave a comment below or you can show me by using #PlanetManel on Instagram. Thank you! X