The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

This is worth a visit if you like grandiose castles.

We headed to former East Germany for a sunny weekend, since we had heard Dresden is a picturesque location. We didn’t realize that post-WW2 rebuilding didn’t start until after the Berlin Wall came down.

But it is very nice and we stumbled upon a good transportation museum, which is our favorite type of museum. Lorie even got to fly a flying saucer in an old version of Microsoft Flight Simulator.

While walking around on a sunny Friday evening, I came across a park and palace I didn’t know about.

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.