(Haren, the Netherlands)

When I was at law school, I nearly went on a one semester academic exchange to the University of Groningen. While I ultimately didn’t go on the exchange, I always wanted to see what it would have been like.  My cousin is now teaching at that same university; it seems like the right time to see the school, the city and the province!

We’re staying in Haren, a quaint town about 7 km southeast of Groningen.  There is a tranquil park here with a lot of wildlife, including a herd of deer!  The downtown core also features a huge old-fashioned windmill.

During our wadlopen shoe-renting mission, one of our other stops was at the Fraeylemaborg mansion in the small town of Slochteren.  Parts of the mansion date back to the middle ages; the photo at the top of the post was taken from a bridge in the park that surrounds the mansion.  We had lunch at an old inn in the nearby town of Loppersum.

On August 19, we visited the city of Groningen.  While it may not be as dramatic as Delft (Groningen suffered more war damage and there are some ill-fitting 1950s structures in the downtown core), Groningen still has many beautiful old buildings both inside and outside the university.  One of the more impressive ones was the Plato record store:  of course, I felt compelled to visit and found a few vinyl treasures inside.  Like many university towns, Groningen is a treasure trove of interesting music.

There were many other interesting stores, however.  One store (“Klinkhamer”) could probably have charged admission to enter:  it sold everything from a stuffed two-headed bird to antique cigar boxes to radioactivity warning signs from nuclear plants.  The Kaashandel van der Ley cheese store was another example of a specialty store that went one step beyond the norm with its huge selection of domestic and imported cheeses.  Alas, it is difficult to bring home cheese and LPs:  our shopping is limited to 7″ vinyl singles and snack-sized cheese products.

We really like the feel of Groningen.  Our waiter at dinner told us that life is just a little bit slower in Groningen and even that “people from Groningen are a little more honest”.  While I can’t really assess that claim, I think it would be easy to live here.   As we have found elsewhere in the Netherlands, the people are very helpful and seem genuinely pleased that we are visiting from Canada.

We were also able to wander freely through the university buildings.  There is a large contingent of international students here and local residents seem quite comfortable with the diverse academic population.

Perhaps because of the huge student population, bicycle use here was even higher than in Delft.  Beside the train station, we saw a parking garage for bicycles!

As much as we enjoyed Groningen, we also really enjoyed travelling on the narrow local roads in the provinces of Groningen and Drenthe.  The narrow local roads are often lined closely on both sides by tall trees that somehow create a cozy t unnel effect.  I think it would be great to undertake a bicycle tour of the small villages in this part of the Netherlands, as dedicated bicycle paths often run parallel to these scenic roads.  We’re now moving on to a different part of the Netherlands but I am quite sure that we will return to the north in the near future.