The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

When walking around, we see interesting birds, even in the Albert Cuyp market. Plus weird donuts and even the Heineken horses delivering beer (I assume).

Friday night, Lorie and I attended the Bols Cocktail Workshop in Amsterdam at the House of Bols. They make a variety of Bols liqueurs. If you’ve ever had a Blue Hawaiian drink (or any blue cocktail), then you’ve most likely had their blue curacao. They also make Bols Genever, which is older than gin. The English tasted Genever and decided to try to make it themselves and what they created they called gin. I have to admit that I prefer gin over genever, but the history dating back to 1575 for making and distributing genever is pretty interesting.

The cocktail course was focused on tiki drinks, which aren’t our favorite, but it was fun learning to make three new cocktails and getting to taste whatever we wanted behind the bar.

Sometimes while walking around you see some beautiful spots in Amsterdam. 

And then there are some boats I’m just not sure about.

Tourists get to experience boating on the canals too. Some are big and some are small and my tip is to take a small one if you can, because they can go down a few canals that the big ones can’t.

Many boats go unused in the canals, possibly forgotten. Although I’m sure some get used a couple of times a year and others might get used every day, just not maintained.

Most boats in the canals are basic, shaped like a bathtub, and have little more than a couple of benches to sit on. It’s a very utilitarian approach to a boat, much like so many of the heavy and durable bicycles in the city. The one with the solar panels on the roof is a rental boat.

It all happens from boats on the canals: construction, steam cleaning, delivering packages, and selling flowers.