Assen Shopping

I had the chance to browse this shop during my trip to Assen. Honestly, I don't know the exact location. Anyway, I like the shop very much and felt like buying so many things. The shop sells plenty of things such as small size furniture, lamps, mirror, home decor, kitchen ware, gifts and other things as well.

What to buy: I'm not that sure what to shop in Assen, but I've bought a few things at Xenos: a white baroque frame for 4.99 euro, a wooden silver greenish frame 3.49 euro, a hanging candle holder for 2.49 euro per piece, another nice looking candle holder for 3.49 and a food tong for 1.99 euro.

You might ask me why I bought them there? Don't those things sold in my home town? The answer is yes, I can find all of them here but they don't look the same and here they are much expensive. What I like, I will just buy especially when they are priced reasonably rather than wait to browse other places to only find they are much expensive or I don't find them at all, ha3. I love all the things I bought at Xenos so much and patiently carried all from Assen to Amsterdam, Paris, London and finally home to Kuala Lumpur :)

Since Assen is the capital of the province Drenthe, it is also one of the main places to go shopping. You're sure to have a few hours of fun shopping here. Plenty of fashion and shoe shops, specialist shops such as for lovers of cooking, book shops, musical instruments shops, you name it.

The street market is on Tuesday. We bought some nice fresh plaice fillet for our meal that evening.

One of those typical exotic shops (called 'toko') where you can buy all your Asian ingredients and groceries, vegs, etc.
This shop also does takeaway food, catering, and Asian cosmetics.
On Wednesday the fresh herbs, spices and vegetables arrive.

I enjoy this shop a lot. Mainly because while shopping, delicious smells are wafting in from the kitchen.

What to buy: It's the freshly cooked takeaway food that takes my fancy most. You have to come late in the afternoon (after 16 hrs) because before that, the food won't be ready.
Here's a selection of delicious dishes:

White rice
Lontong (sticky white rice)
Nasi goreng (fried rice)
Bami goreng (fried noodles)
Daging pedis (spicy stewed beef)
Ayam pedis (spicy chicken)
Babi ketjap (pork in sweet soy sauce)
Ayam smoor (chicken in sweet soy sauce)
Daging smoor (stewed beef in sweet soy sauce)
Pepesan (spicy mackerel in banana leaf)
Sambal goreng boontjes (spicy/hot fried string beans)
Gado gado (vegetables with peanut sauce)
Sayoer lodeh (spiced vegetables in coconut milk)
Sambal goreng kentang (spicy potato sticks )

What to pay: You can eat well under 10 euro per person.

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Assen has a regional function for shopping. So next to the shopping area in the old streets of the city, there is built a new shoppingcentre just north of the Gedempte Singel. At this area was a gate to the monastery in mediaval times.

In this modern-styled shoppingcentre, the Forum and Mercuriuscentre, you can find the big stores like Hema, V&D and C&A, but also many fancy smaller shops and the library.

Here is also the weekly market and all kind of other activities. In winter I saw even a ice-skating tent.

Thugh romans never came this far North, the shopping centre within the centre of Assen is called the Forum. Maybe somebody wants to make a speech before spending loads of money on various products here?

In the old citycentre are a lot of shops. It's nice to walk around in this cosy part of the town which has mainly streets for pedestrians.

You can see a lot of beautiful old buildings, some lovely statues and this old city pump.

You will find here the regular shops for clothing and shoes like in every city, but there are also bookshops, some nice boutiques and interesting giftshops.

In the old citycentre at the Nieuwe Huizen is situated Drogisterij (Chemist's shop) Griever in an historical shop, built in 1864 by a chemist. This building is one of the 350 buildings in Assen, protected as national cultural heritage.

Above its door the chemist's shop has a traditional ''gaper''. So, if you need an asparin look out for this gaper. You can buy also just some licquorice, of course.

If you are not nearby this old chemist's shop and seeking desperately an asparin or some other medicin, you can visit a more modern chemist's shop like Etos, Trekpleister or Kruidvat.

In a lovely old building with a nice tower, built in 1900 in the eclectic style, you can find the shop Keskusta, by the local people also known as the "Finse Winkel'' (Finnish shop).
This building is situated at the corner of the Nieuwe Huizen (''New Houses'') and the Gedempte Singel.The Gedempte Singel, meaning ''Filled-up Moat'' is part of the old singelstructure around the former monastery. Nowadays this singel is one of the main shoppingstreets in the old citycentre.

What to buy: In Keskusta you can look for colourful Finnish, Danish & other North European clothes, but also for nice designed jewellery and pottery from North Europe.