Tour de Pays-Bas Day 6: Groningen to Assen
Redemption morning in Groningen – no hangover! We did it! (Although man, still feeling that Captain’s Dinner.) Breakfast at the hotel, then some reading and writing and sober appreciation of our beautiful room at Hotel Miss Blanche until checkout. A word on this hotel, who offered us a free upgrade and breakfast for our stay – they’ve converted 11 historic townhouses in central Groningen into amazing rooms and suites for an elegant boutique hotel experience that still feels very homey and cozy. Plus our room this time is on the top floor, so we have a great view of the city as well (and it’s high up enough to escape Groningen’s noisy all-night party scene).
Then we’re back on the bikes for a quick ride down to Haren to meet up with Justin’s childhood friend Marc, who he hasn’t seen in 25 years!
Groningen - Haren: 6.1 km
Google Maps time: 22 minutes Our time: 25 minutes
Justin met Marc at his opa en oma's vacation home in Breukelen back when he was just 9 years old. They would fish together and Marc spoke excellent English, so they became fast friends. Over the years, they would reconnect almost every summer in Breukelen and Justin credits him for turning him onto skateboarding, new music and thinking about life in a whole different way. Marc was definitely a huge inspiration in Justin’s life and he continues to inspire as he shows us around his residence at the Biotoop. Haren is known to be one of the more affluent towns in the province of Groningen (and of course infamous for the 16th birthday party gone wrong on Sept. 6, 2012), so it’s awesome to see this communal, anti-squatting living space home to more than 300 residents and workers as an established and thriving cultural and community centre here.
Marc also shows us his jaw-dropping collection and cataloging of skateboarding memorabilia, boards and videos. You could spend hours browsing through all of this old skateboarding stuff that could fill a museum and, indeed, Marc has exciting plans to do just that!
Haren - Assen: 22.8 km
Google Maps time: 73 minutes Our time: 90 minutes
After a great visit with Marc, it’s on to Assen. It’s another hot and humid day and, even though our distance today is on the shorter side, this is one of our toughest/least pleasant days of biking so far. The air is thick and smoggy, and the bike path is right next to busy car traffic the entire way. (To be fair, there is a more scenic route we could have taken that goes through the Drentsche Aa National Park, but because of the heat we decided on the shortest and most direct route – not always the best choice!)
We are very relieved to finally roll into Assen and cool off in our air-conditioned hotel room. Then, of course, we’re off in search of a snack and a drink. Assen is a small town, and quite sleepy on a Sunday afternoon, but things are lively at The Koppelpaarden. … That’s actually where most of the rest of the day takes place thanks to an unexpectedly intense storm that hits us in the early evening. So while we don’t see much of Assen, we do get to spend time in what has to be its gezelligste bruin café! (Read more below.) But we promise ourselves we’ll see a bit more of the town the next morning.
CAFÉ OF THE DAY: De Koppelpaarden
While Assen was pretty quiet on the Sunday afternoon when we got in, the patio at historic bruin café De Koppelen was packed! Right in Assen’s centrum, we enjoyed a couple of drinks and some bitterballen on the patio in the afternoon and then returned later in the evening ahead of dinner. They recognized us immediately and welcomed us back (hopefully not thinking we were complete alcoholics!). As it cooled down in the evening and the rain clouds threatened above, we moved inside, which revealed a beautiful wood interior that rivals the gezelligste of bruin cafés. We’re in luck to make it to De Koppelpaarden when we do — as soon as we sit down inside it starts to pour!
To be honest, we love the rain – and even moreso from the inside of a cozy bar with a drink to watch it come down. And for the next half hour, it falls down hard, flooding the streets and making the trek to the Italian restaurant we have in mind impossible without getting soaked (and it’s less than 20 metres away!). While we’re worried the restaurant might close, we enjoy another round, borrow an umbrella as the rain lessens and we find a route around the pond of water that’s collected in the centrum. We have a delicious dinner and go back to De Koppelpaarden for an aperitif and thank the friendly staff for a gezellig night. Definitely recommend paying them a visit if you’re in Assen!
WHAT WE MISSED: Like we mentioned earlier, in our desire to keep exertion to a minimum on this hot and smoggy day, we missed out on the scenic route we had originally planned. This would have taken us through the Nationaal Park Drentsche Aa, which is supposed to be full of beautiful cycling routes along forests, sand dunes and streams. Drenthe is a really beautiful province with plenty of amazing nature (and we will make up for this somewhat tomorrow — stay tuned!).
LEARN FROM THE AMATEURS: It’s no secret that bike theft is rampant in the Netherlands, especially in the big cities. So we knew we had to be careful with our rental bikes. Fortunately, almost every hotel we stayed in had secure overnight bike storage for us, and even if a hotel didn’t have its own facilities (as in Leeuwarden for example), we were able to make use of the city’s public fietstallen, or bike parking. In Leeuwarden, there was a free bike garage right around the corner from our hotel, and safe bike storage is free for up to seven days. (After that it costs 1 euro per day.) Almost every city has something like this, just look up “fietstallen” in the place you’re visiting and safe, convenient and free bike storage will be yours! We also invested in a sturdy chain link bike lock so we could lock up our bikes even within the secure indoor storage facilities. You can’t be too careful!