The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

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.

I’ve heard that this can be a good way to see the city, but when live and work in the canal area, they become part of the scenery. Even when the canals were freezing over, the boats were still going; explaining Amsterdam to the tourists as they made their way through the canals.

There is always something to avoid, but usually a stack of bicycles. That walk sign probably isn’t meant for really stupid people; I suspect it is another form of “don’t park your bike here”.

The mail boxes have two slots, each with a range of post codes. The idea is that if the postcode you are sending a letter to is within the range noted for the left slot, you put the letter in that one. I think one is for the city of Amsterdam, and the other is for everything else in the world, or at least the Netherlands.

Exciting topic, right? This little series is about everyday things in Amsterdam. Thankfully, it is really easy to figure out, since the words for recycling items are almost the same as English. The only really weird thing is the lack of recycling aluminum or any type of metal; cans just go in the garbage bin. I think each neighborhood chooses their own style of receptacles and notice that most of these go into the ground so a truck with a crane has to come and lift it out of the ground.