After taking
a stroll around Sneek following our breakfast, we began driving. Meandering our
way around and through the Providence of Friesland. We love the country side – It is so peaceful
and serene, with wide open space between the farmsteads and villages. Sometimes
we followed canals, dikes, and country lanes. We saw many sheep grazing. In years past you would have seen the milk
cows grazing in the pastures, but now they have these huge barns so the
cows are inside. Also outside the barns are huge trench silos for silage. We miss seeing the cows in the pastures. Most of the farmsteads are being maintained very
well. We are wondering what is going to
happen to the next generation regarding farming. Holland needs the farmers – In the world, Holland
is the 3rd most-dense country in population.
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| Country Houses and Barns |
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| Swans on Roof Top |
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| Dairy Barns |
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| Canals |
We would
stop in some of the villages through which we drove for a photo or two of a house
or building, and in one village it was market day. We bought some fresh strawberries for
snacking.
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| Market Day |
We then
crossed over into the Providence of Groningen - just like crossing a State
line. The farms in this northern part of Holland are very similar. However, for
some reason the Providence of Groningen has more windmills than the Providence
of Friesland. I don’t know if they have just preserved more, or if they
historically had more. We didn’t get a photo of every windmill we saw, but we took
photos of many of them! We did not go out-of-our-way to drive to towns with
windmills, but we did search out the best location for a photo of the mill. You
cannot be too close to the big structure, and yet if you were too far away
other buildings could get in the way,
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| House along a Dike |
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| Tree Lined Road |
We are
overnighting in Groningen. Groningen is
not the easiest city in which to maneuver a car. Most streets are one-way, the
downtown has extremely limited access for cars, and bicycles are
EVERYWHERE! This is a University city –
we don’t know the population of the U but the students travel by bike. The traffic signals have a cycle for bicyclist.
We finally found a hotel at the edge of the city instead of downtown. The two downtown hotels we could drive to were
already full. After getting a room we drove
to a parking garage near the downtown and walked around the historic area
before finding a Pub for our evening meal.
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| Cathedral in Downtown Groningen |
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| Bicycles, Bicycles Everywhere |
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| Groningen Architecture |
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