A “Heel Gezellig” Day

While much of this trip will be Germany, it has started in the Netherlands … and it has been HEEL GEZELLIG so far. Liesbeth’s hospitality has been second to none. We slept fairly well and woke to a delicious breakfast of cheese, sausage, bread, jam, and yogurt; Liesbeth spoils us. 😁

After a leisurely morning we headed back in time: we visited an historic village called Bourtange. And we were very lucky, or as the Dutch say, “Wij vielen met onze kont in de boter” (we fell with our butts in the butter), because this weekend there were historical re-enactments of 17th century battles. It was so much more than we had hoped for. We also had a very typical Dutch sandwich for lunch, kroketten with mustard on white bread. Lekker!

In the afternoon we headed into the city center of Groningan. It’s a city of about 200,000 people, one fourth of whom are university students. It really has a college town feel. There are plenty of places to eat and drink. We went to the top of one of the newest buildings in town, the Forum. The modern, well designed structure contains a library, study areas, coffee, beer/wine bar, movie theaters, childrens’ areas, and more. It was a fun stop.

After a beer at a sidewalk restaurant, we met up with Francine, a friend Jim had met during his exchange trip in 2017 (and a former colleague of Liesbeth) for a Turkish dinner. The food was good and the company was great.