Groningen; Saturday, 22 June, 2013

I had a nice long lie in and then a leisurely breakfast before heading out of the hotel and wandering into town, heading first off for the Grote Markt in the centre of the old town

In predictable form the first place I headed to was the tower of the Martinikerke to take in the views over the city. Then after a quick pit stop sitting in the Grote Markt recovering from pounding up and then down 150 odd steps, I had a look around the church itself.

With the weather looking like it was about to change I headed back over towards the station to pick up the canal tour of the city. I managed to arrive with a minute or so to spare before the first of the afternoon’s heavy showers pounded down.

The tour itself was quite interesting, but with the commentary only in Dutch and German I didn’t understand most of it. Though how many people heard much of it when the rain was pounding on the glass roof of the boat is another question.

After completing the tour I walked the short distance over the bridge to the Groninger Museum, only getting slightly soaked on the way. I had a long wander around the museum taking in the different galleries and stopped for a very late lunch/early dinner in the café.

The skies looked like they were clearing, and with about five hours of daylight left; I decided to catch the train out to the nearby coastal town of Delfzijl.

About halfway through the train journey it became apparent that the weather hadn’t cleared as first a bank of dark cloud approached and then dumped another massive downpour on the Dutch countryside. By the time I reached Delfzijl it had reduced to a grotty mixture of fine drizzle alternating with short periods of heavier rain, whipped up by a stiff breeze coming off the land rather than the sea.

I had a bit of a wander around by the beach and the seafront, and after a little while it did start to clear, with even a speck of blue sky appearing, around the same time that the mists cleared to reveal Germany a few kilometres away across the channel. I walked back through the centre of town to the train station and got there a few minutes before the next hefty shower made its presence felt.

By the time I got back into Groningen it was starting to brighten up again, or as much as it can in the last hour before sunset, so I walked back to the hotel, had a quick drink in the bar and then headed to bed.