Something of old Groningen

Nicely color-coordinated patrons of an outdoor cafe.

We went on to Groningen, where we spent 7 nights.  The conference was Monday thru Friday; we arrived two days early. It's a university town and has many cafes, bars, restaurants, and night spots. The combination meant we were frequently awakened in the early predawn hours by people singing and/or talking loudly down on the street. But it is an old city, and we were fortunate to be in the center, which is mostly car-free. And the public bus to the conference site was quite close to our flats.

 

Late afternoon on a street leading to the Grotemarkt (large plaza in the center of town).

On a sunny Sunday the outdoor cafes were packed.

But in the rain, the Groninger Art Museum was a good place to visit.

A water-level view across the canal from the Groninger Museum.

 Ruud van Empel creates digital photographs from hundreds of fragments and creates a strange world.

Please note that these giant creepy dollies are carrying or smoking joints.

contrasting portraits of then and now?

The "Famille Verte" exhibit of Chinese porcelains was swathed in sheer draperies.

or protected by glass vitrines.

A staircase in one of the Museum's wings.  Please note the BRIGHT RED walls.

Sculpture at the entrance of the Museum.

Bicycles border a residential park near the big canal.

Some of the larger boats moored in the canal.

"Aquarelle" is owned by Mike and Roseleen Miller.  They live year-round on the boat.

A reception at the Groningen Ship Museum featured the Royal Dutch Sailing Association's chorus.  Their singing was enthusiastic and contagious - - many of the audience who are Dutch were singing along.





The reception spilled over into the courtyard outside the Ship Museum.



The Vismarkt, in the center of town, hosts a great foodmarket on weekdays.

Fresh produce for sale in the Vismarkt.

Even sweet corn - I thought 1.75 euro for 2 ears was a bit much!

As soon as the market closed, the clean-up crew took over.

This is "Emma" - she's owned by the Ship Museum and we are about to have a ride.

Hans is the captain.

Sjoard [pronounced sort of like Stewart] was the crew as well as our host/tour guide.

Pat, Barbara, Laura, John, Tom, and Linda - and Val is half out of the picture on the left..

We saw many things, including this women's crew team.

And out in the very large channel, we saw the cranes that lift shipping containers onto and off of barges.

A boathouse for crew teams and sculls.

Hans and Sjoard treated us to a Dutch liqueur-like drink - - sip it, please; it's fiery.

That's me, toasting with the Dutch drink.



The conference attendees were invited to the Mayor's reception at the City Hall.  Tom and Linda with Krista and Diana.



Ristaffel (sp?) at an Indonesian restaurant.

Two of the many many wooden Indonesian carvings that surrounded our table.

I'd come to this jazz club to meet my husband's internet friend, Bert van Erk. 

But he was not performing that night (he plays the double bass).

Instead there was a female quartet who were, I'm told, students at the local conservatory.

After that night out, all of our time was occupied with the conference right up to Saturday night, when we moved on to the great city of Amsterdam.  Those photos will come along later.





Dutch towns.

Two Dutch towns:  Woudsend and Sneek.

A very large church - St. Martin's - with its unexplained wooden sidekick - in the center of Sneek.

Grand Cafe occupies a corner between the main road and the canal in Woudsend.

Netherlands towns were surprising to me.  From the village of Woudsend to the big city of Amsterdam, they were old-fashioned, even historic, but modern as well.  I certainly did not expect to see people in wooden shoes, women in white bonnets, men in blue balloon-leg pants, like some illustration from a child's storybook.  But I also did not expect to see everyone using cell phones, bike-riders not wearing helmets or spandex, absolutely up-to-date public transportation.  And the canals - - tiny canal connecting a farm with a larger canal, where in Virginia there'd be a long farm lane out to the main road.  And big canals full of heavily laden barges, some even carrying shipping containers stacked three deep.

So here are some photos of two of them, from the little village of Woudsend to the town of Sneek.  First, Woudsen, where we picked up the boat but were thwarted by bad weather and had to spend the first night here.

Yes! a windmill!  it appears to be part of a boat club now.

Hmm.  Interesting use of a wooden shoe.

A row of tiny houses was typical of the center of the village of Woudsend.

We visited a pastry shop looking for apple tart for my birthday.



Dinner will arrive in just a moment.



The main road through Woudsend crosses on a liftbridge over the canal.

The red and white gate is opening and the cyclists are preparing to cross.  I think the only hills in this area of Netherlands are those at liftbridges.

An example of the beautiful new modern buses that run throughout Friesland.

On a very windy afternoon, I have a lesson in driving the boat.

Then on to the town of Sneek, in Friesland, big enough to have trains stop here but there's no train station.  There is, however, a very lovely "ship museum" that celebrates Friesland shipping from the "Golden Age" to the present.

This structure is the ancient "Waterpoort" - an important landmark in the town of Sneek.

Our boat is moored, and Pat and Barbara study the chart.

School is out, and the middle-schoolers enjoyed the afternoon warmth before mounting their bikes for home.

Of course we found an ice cream store!

Most canal-side houses had two windows usually uncurtained, and ornamented with a pair of vases or candlesticks or plants - - completely visible to passers-by.

Two fishermen next to our boat seem to have caught little tiny fish only.

Fifteen grey-haired men swiftly rowed past.



Some of the interesting old buildings in the center of Sneek.



A very blurry rising full  moon over Sneek.

This is a small boat typical of the fishing fleet in this part of Friesland.

The Ship Museum had entire walls from "Golden Age" homes installed as display cases and doorways.  This is an especially delicately painted example.

A beautiful tall case clock in an 18th century room.



An ice sled - put your children in it, strap on your skates, and take off pushing?