The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

This is the last of my “30 Everyday Things in Amsterdam” posts. These were in no particular order, but I do really enjoy having street markets scattered around Amsterdam. I don’t often buy anything, but I like walking through them to see what’s being sold and what’s in season.

If you want to buy from a local farmer, get a fresh stroopwafel, find some cheese, flowers, or maybe just some weird odds and ends, then your local street market is the place. Amsterdam has quite a few of them, but they’re not always open every day of the week so you have to get to know your local ones; when to go, what to get, etc.

We are still in search for our favorite local pub, although we do like Helst when we’re in the mood for good beer. I don’t mind if the search for a favorite requires prolonged sampling of local establishments.

These get much more popular as the weather gets warmer, but even in winter you can get a seat outside. Some places just make the sidewalk more crowded and others have entire areas for seating outside that get more and more filled with tables and chairs as the weather warms up. I assume they must have off-site storage for this stuff somewhere.

As soon as the weather gets nice in Amsterdam, people come out of hiding. Parks fill up, boat traffic increases, and beer sales skyrocket (I assume). I have noticed that when the boats are cruising the canals and the Amstel river, they are usually packed full and have beer and wine setup in the center of the boat.

Where to take those dogs when they’re out on a walk? To your local dog park of course, which usually just means some area of a park where people usually let their dogs run around. It’s usually meant to be a dog section, but not always, and usually not restricted to just dogs or fenced.

Dogs are welcomed almost everywhere in Amsterdam, so quite a few people have dogs. They all need to get out for a walk, so you’re bound to see them.

To take a tram, metro or train, you need some sort of ticket or pass. Related, you have to figure out which one to take and which platform it is leaving from. It can be a bit confusing if you are in a hurry, but there is logic to it if you take time to figure it out.

Yes, we have trams, trains, and a metro in Amsterdam. They are all different types of locomotives. The metro runs somewhat underground (under water?) and sometimes above ground, on their own tracks, versus the trams that are always on street level.

Since I didn’t grow up with trams, or really much of any public transportation, I find that I prefer the trains and trams more than the locals. Often they are convenient, if they’re going where you need to go, but sometimes they do get slowed down by traffic and parked delivery trucks since they run on the street level.