Road trip through northern Groningen

Why not spend a day on holiday in Groningen? Close to home, you will find the best moments of happiness. Meet the friendly villagers, taste the Ommelander craft and discover how creeping roads take you to the most beautiful views. A day on a road trip through Groningen is a day on an adventure. Are you coming?

'Leave on time' is the advice. So we do, as we have a pretty busy programme ahead of us. De Suikertuin is the starting point of the route. Not entirely coincidentally, this is also the place where we went over the route last night on Stadslab's festival terrace while enjoying a few special beers. Then we literally rolled home, because less than twenty metres down the road our bed was waiting for us at the Rebel Rebel Hostel. In a container, admittedly. Indeed, sugar garden sounds much sweeter than it is. A rough, industrial terrain where the atmosphere tends more towards a cold beer with a savoury drinks board than sweets. But not this morning first. With our feet in the sand of the adjacent stadsstrand, we start the day very relaxed with a (non-alcoholic) juice.

Then it's time to get into the car. With that, we drive west for about 15 minutes. First stop: coffee and tea house Tante Til in the historic village of Enumatil. Incredibly cute, this little tea house, where you can also go for some comfort food after tea time. We go for a coffee from the Groningen coffee roastery TIK TAK with - what else - a large piece of homemade poffert. Warm, with some butter and brown sugar.

Still recovering from the delicious coffee break, we drive via Zuidhorn to Noordhorn, along a road lined with some very nice cottages. At the mill in Noordhorn, we stop the car for a moment. You no longer notice that the bloody Battle of Noordhorn took place here, but it feels good to stop the engine anyway. The next stop will be Niehove. At least, that's the plan. But on the way, we hit the brakes at the sight of Kamphuis Verswinkel in Noordhorn, where we fill a few paper bags with strawberries, cherries, wild peaches and pears. Delicious for the road.

Somewhere in the flat land of Groningen, you suddenly stumble upon a village so cosy and so authentic that you have to swallow your tongue. That there is a village pub here is no surprise, but an Indonesian restaurant? We didn't expect that here in the blink of an eye. Just like ceramics studio Mouseworks, which you have to look for. But you get used to that during this day trip. To find the gems of the Groningen Ommeland, you sometimes have to try hard. Then we walk around the church of Niehove and enjoy the peace and quiet. Time really stood still here.

Over winding roads, we dive deeper into the province. Past the impressive Gemaal De Waterwolf and countless beautiful farmhouses. Unlike the "hidden" Niehove, we can see the next stop coming from afar. Over there by those colourful fishermen's cottages, that's where we need to be. Just follow your eyes and a bit of your nose. The Reitdiepskade invites you for a (culinary) stroll. With fishing boats on one side and authentic fishermen's cottages on the other, Zoutkamp breathes all fish.

We stay in the fishing state for a while when the car takes us to Lauwersoog via the Strandweg. From the dike, the view over the National Park Lauwersmeer is phenomenal, so we stop for a 360-degree view in full nature. We leave the nature reserve in an easterly direction, where a quartet of picturesque Groningen villages await us. Vierhuizen, Ulrum, Hornhuizen and Kleine Huisjes. Finally, we park the car at the botanical swing garden Domies Toen in Pieterburen.

After Pieterburen, the route takes us slowly back towards town. That is: not in one straight line downhill, but with a horizontal diversions past Onderdendam, Winsum and Roodehaan, among others. Detour may sound undesirable, but in this case we are only too happy with it. We park the car in the village that was voted the most beautiful village in the Netherlands in 2020: Winsum. We end up in an adorable village centre that is home to numerous small entrepreneurs. These include PUUT, a children's clothing shop with second-hand clothes and handmade accessories for young and old.

In Winsum, we are already getting used to the cosy bustle that the town also has. The village prepares us for our destination: the city of Groningen. An old acquaintance, where yet enough changes to remain surprising. So we continue our exploration here. Without a car but still a gear up.