The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

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.

Most cities in the US have an ACE Hardware or something similar, and then outside of town will be the big stores like Home Depot. That is similar in Amsterdam too, but when living in the city it’s always good to know where you can quickly buy a tool or some other “thing” that city hardware stores are good at stocking.

Keep in mind that we are in Europe, so those Italian, French, German and Spanish wines are not far away. I prefer champagne though, which is less popular with the Dutch, so it isn’t as easy to find our favorites. We’re still searching for the right wine shop for that; some are big chains and some are locally owned.

There are quite a few grocery stores in Amsterdam, many of them are Albert Heijn, but Jumbo, Ekoplaza, Marqt and others are all around the city too. So far, Albert Heijn and Marqt have the best store-branded stroopwafels, which is the most important item in my grocery bag.

Amsterdam is a popular tourist destination, and rightfully so. However, it doesn’t take long to get a little tired of the tourist crowds, so you have to get good at avoiding certain areas (if you can) and navigating through and around the crowds. Avoiding the crowds are pretty easy, but avoiding one person with a rolling suitcase who doesn’t walk a straight line is more difficult.