Groningen & Essen

We took a day trip on Wednesday to Groningen, approximately 45 kilometres from Grou. Since Delmer and I had not visited this city during our first trip to the Netherlands, we fired up the GPS to guide us along the way. Keep in mind, that I am travelling with two men, who don't need directions. As we reached the city of 190,000 people, we shot off the highway onto an alternate route. The rest was "downhill" as far as finding our first attraction, the Groninger Museum. We were "deer in the headlights" driving through the pedestrian and bicycle dominated city centrum. We did manage to find the museum, and parked our car for day, much to the relief of the city's inhabitants.

The Groninger Museum is very modern in appearance. It resembled a ship in it's overall design. We experienced a hard-hitting Chinese exhibit about human oppression. We all agreed that the approach to the subject, while attention getting, was not as effective as it could have been. We then walked to the centrum, a much less dangerous journey than our earlier visit. After a much needed lunch break, we wandered around the city centre. We headed back to the museum to check out some other exhibits and then took a boat ride through the city's canals. We finished our day with a drive to Essen for supper where we found a lovely place, called the Dijkstra Cafe. The food was tasty, service and atmosphere just right. 

Check out our photos of the train station, Groninger Museum, cafe, Groningen centrum including the famous six-sided Martinitoren (tower).