Albert Heijn

Whenever we travel, a grocery store is always on my must-see list. (Funny, I came across this post after we were back from our trip. I see I am not the only one!)

One reason we visit grocery stores on our travels is a practical one. We stock up on breakfast (usually granola bars), water and snack foods. Domestically, we usually bring breakfast with us, because there isn't much difference between grocery stores, but internationally, I plan to buy it there. But the reason why I love visiting grocery stores? They're so much fun! They're great insights into the local culture and I just love finding all the different products.

The only "problem" with grocery stores in other countries (especially in other languages) is that I am fascinated by everything and want to take pictures of everything. I tried to restrain myself on our earlier visit at the airport grocery store and this visit from taking too many pictures.

Now that I've given you my grocery-store-obsession background, it should come as no surprise that Albert Heijn was high on our destination list. It's the main grocery store in Amsterdam and there are branches everywhere you look. They aren't gigantic like our supermarkets, and A remarked that this could be because people don't seem to stockpile like they do here and instead buy what they need at the time.

Here's a look at some of the things that fascinated me at the grocery store:

Packaged sandwiches that look perfect for bringing to work for lunch (if I did that sort of thing).


Boerenkool... does that look familiar?


Pizza!


Carrot balls (as opposed to baby carrots or carrot sticks)... they look cute!


Why can't we have shrimp chips in our regular grocery stores? Love.


This could work for a taco night party substitution:


Pretty strawberry cake.


These cats kind of scare me, although I guess you could find them cute.


Mmm... popsicles.


And of course, lots of paprika snacks.


And here's what we ended up buying:


2 boxes of breakfast bars (muesli reep) - natural and chocolate flavors, shrimp chips, paprika mini fries, Spa Reine water (huge bottle for cheap), mini stroopwafels (delicious, more on that later), and Haribo (my favorite candy brand which we need more of here) happy cherries.

This was the first of several Albert Heijn visits (mostly for water). Such fun!