The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

We met up with friends in the Ikea parking lot, because there is a train stop there and it’s near the trails we walked. Most of the trails are for bikes too and sometimes we were on small country roads.

Lunch was on the waterfront of Spaarnekade:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Y8U8dVstqqdnmgEDA

It goes on the roof!

Four of us took a short weekend break in Dusseldorf, which is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Amsterdam. A few things we saw were a crooked church steeple, Canadian geese walking down the sidewalk, things to encourage bee hives, not many old/interesting buildings since the city was almost flattened in WWII, and a unique green roof on a new building.

There are quite a few ways to move stuff across Amsterdam with a bicycle and these are a few examples I’ve seen in the last few weeks.

Clearly, some are meant to put kids in them, some for random cargo, but my favorite is the one carrying 2 other bicycles. I had never seen it before, but on either side of the front wheel is a bike rack.

One is just a guy’s tricycle that he carries his fishing gear in. And another is a photo of an older photo showing a milkman’s delivery bike.

There are a few “normal” gas stations in and around Amsterdam, but a few neighborhoods have these. Usually outside of a car repair or rental shop, situated where bicycles would normally be parked, is a gas pump.

Piper can’t pay attention to anything for very long, except maybe when she has a ball. She never noticed the big orange cat behind her. Even after walking by it and sitting in front of it.

This is in Oosterpaark in Amsterdam; a mixed use soccer/football field with 4 basketball hoops. I’ve never seen hoops on fake grass before. I wonder how it feels to dribble a ball on it?

After more than 3 years in Amsterdam, I am still entertained by the small cars that are a perfect fit for a busy city with small streets and limited parking. I often see small cars that are available in the USA, such as the Mini, BMW i3, Fiat 500, and the Smart car. But we also have (starting from the red one): Aixam cars, the Toyota iQ (the photo I have is of a bigger Toyota), Fiat Panda, Brio Bolt (the only 100% electric one listed here), Canta (mostly used by the elderly in Amsterdam), Volkswagen Up, Mitsubishi Mirage, and the Citroen C1 (the blue one).

I find it interesting that most of them are a similar size as my 1992 Honda Civic SI hatchback. So maybe I was ready to live in Europe 30 years ago!

Another 16km today, but much more up and down which was good, because we were covered by the trees and not in open fields too often. It got up to 28C today, so we were happy to be in the shade if the trees.

on the hike, we came across a castle, Riesling vineyards, apple and walnut trees. The green thing sliced open in the photos is a walnut tree.