Last Thursday, we met my mom in Cle Elum to hand the boys over, and then had an evening flight to Amsterdam.
Despite the masks, neither of us slept much on the flight so for our 6-hour layover there, my clever husband determined there was "yotel" right there in the airport. This is basically a mini hotel room complete with a bed and bathroom that you can rent in 4-hour blocks. We decided to head there to catch up on some much needed rest. I'd never heard of these before and while the concept seems crazy, it was a great way to rest up before late nights in Ibiza.
The yotel was located in the middle of the food court.
We finally arrived in Ibiza late Friday evening. After a long cab ride, we arrived at our house to drop our stuff off and get ready to head out and meet the others. (Many cab drivers there don't speak much English and our house was a bit off the beaten path, which proved to be confusing to them.)
After some drinks and snacks, we headed to Pacha, one of the classic clubs on the island around 2 a.m. We had a great first night of dancing and being out on the town.
Island time is crazy there - clubs don't open until midnight, so we weren't going to bed until sunrise most days. That also means you sleep in - most mornings, I was the first person up at 10 or 11 a.m. Lunch is then mid-afternoon before resting up for another late night out. Meals were all thrown off - we usually only had a meal or two during the day, and then snacks after coming back to the house after being out at the clubs.
On Saturday, we went to lunch at Sa Trinxa, a great little spot right on a (somewhat nude) beach. We ate, drank and relaxed there for hours. It was amazing.
(Lunch was delayed slightly by an amazing tale of a lost iPhone (not ours), which led to us tracking it down via our rented mini van in the prior night's cab, using the Find My iPhone app. We never thought in a million years we'd be able to do this, but the cab was parked at a restaurant, right on our way to lunch! The phone was happily returned to it's owner!)
That evening, we headed to Hi, a recently renovated and reopened club that was also great. It had nicely decorated outdoor areas to chat and drink, and then several different DJ rooms/areas for dancing. We were able to get right up front to watch Black Coffee, the headlining DJ, which was so cool. Even more amazing, he did everything one-handed due to an injury to his left hand when he was younger.
Black Coffee doing his thing.
Amazing outdoor lounge areas.
On Sunday, we headed to El Chringuito, just down the beach from Sa Trinxa. It also provided amazing views and proved to be an equally great spot to relax and lounge for a few hours.
That evening, most of us headed out for drinks at Blue Marlin and then a fabulous experience at Heart Ibiza (aka Michelin Star food meets Cirque du Soleil). The food was some of the best I've ever had - it was creative, delicious, came via many courses (I lost count but there had to be at least 12), and presentation was out of this world. And while enjoying the amazing food, the entertainment around us was great. I can't do it justice, but this blogger can. After dinner, the venue turns into a club and we spent the rest of the evening there.
On Monday, Brian's actual 40th birthday, we went BIG by seeing David Guetta's BIG show at Ushuaia. We went all out and reserved a VIP table which came with tons of drinks, a place to lounge, and a great view of the show. It was phenomenal.
On Tuesday, we slept in, relaxed, and made dinner at the house before everyone departed early on Wednesday.
Sunsets there are amazing and last much longer than they do here.
On Wednesday, Corey and I headed off to Amsterdam, where we'd recently decided to extend our 9-hour layover in favor of spending a day and a half being tourists there. Corey's friend Spence flew down from Oslo to hang with us, and my Aunt Karen joined us for an afternoon.
Had the pleasure of riding in a Tesla cab on the way to our hotel!
We stayed at the Andaz hotel, which was really great. One night we ate at the restaurant there (Bluespoon) and the other night, we tried MOS where we enjoyed a wonderful 6-course dinner and wine pairings. From there, we ventured to Door 74, a speakeasy type bar our server told us about. It's completely unmarked and you must ring the doorbell to be let in. Very cute and fun.
While in Amsterdam, we shopped The Nine Streets, Corey and Spence hit up the Stedelijk museum while I had lunch and wandered around with Karen, we took a canal tour, and wandered through the Floating Flower Market.
So. Many. Bikes. You even need bike garages to house them. And being outside during evening rush hour is hilarious - so many bikes zooming by!
Our hotel had the cutest tulip chairs. This pic does not do them justice.
Both portions of our trip were amazing, and we are so glad we were able to do both as they truly felt like separate getaways, and allowed us to experience all ends of the spectrum. Huge thanks to Joan for watching Miss Roxy and holding down the fort at home, and my parents for watching the boys and keeping them so busy and out of trouble!
No comments:
Post a Comment