DUTCH DIARY: GETTING TO GRONINGEN

Terminal 5 Heathrow

Nobody looks as if they want to be at Gate A16 at Terminal 5 Heathrow, except us. We, Dave the pilot, Mike the fishmonger and I are off to Holland for four days.

At Amsterdam Schiphol we board the train for a lovely two-hour ride across Holland, along side fields and farms, crossing waterways and small towns.  A familiar and calming landscape, delightfully flat. 

Train-scape across Holland

By lunchtime in Groningen, we collect our electric bikes and have lunch by a canal side in the city.

The first of many in Holland

Warm sun and we clamber into light garb. After excellent sandwiches and the first of Dutch beers we pedal out of the city northwest along the cycle paths. Waterways and flowers and sheep and cattle everywhere a cuckoo sings no more than a hundred metres away.

A teashop reveals itself en route, and with the sun still high we take a rest and chat with the locals and discover the origins of the provincial flag.

We stop for tea