Sometimes you arrive in a town (or any other place for that matter) and you immediately fall in love with it. That is what Lars and I experienced in Groningen. To be honest, Lars had been there once many many years ago; for me, it was the very first visit.
With its 200.000 inhabitants, Groningen is one of the biggest towns in the north of the Netherlands. Moreover, it has a youthful atmosphere thanks to its university with its 30.000 students. Finally, the inner city with all its main touristic attractions is very compact. Or, in other words, this town is ideal for a weekend getaway.
Lars and I first went to the Grote Markt with its Martinitoren, the highest church steeple of Groningen and also the bell tower of the Martinikerk. (Source: Wikipedia) The Grote Markt is also the place where you can find the tourist information office. Anyway, the Martinitoren is 97 meters high and is built in Gothic style. You can climb the tower, which we did not do, because of our fear of heights.
We continued our stroll to the nearby Vismarkt (Fish Market), home to a lot of pubs, shops and cozy eateries. The stall you can see in one of the pictures does sell fish.
We also passed the gothic Aa Church, but unfortunately it was closed for visitors, like all the other churches in Groningen, by the way. I am not sure if this is a general rule or if this applies only in the low season. By the way, the word Aa is actually the name of the nearby river.
We slowly approached one of the canals, that circle the inner town of Groningen.
This is what we did in the morning. In the afternoon Lars and I decided to see Groningen from another point of view.
