What strikes me about Groningen is its resemblance to Utrecht, and not just in the fact that the city shares its name with the province. The Quaint Old Buildings are the same. The markets and shops are the same. The road leading from station to town centre is very similar, although the stations are extremely dissimilar, Utrecht CS being blended into a shopping centre while Groningen CS is just this unsightly little place where trains and buses stop. The only thing Utrecht has that Groningen doesn't is these shady lanes running along the main road. And I'm sure that Utrecht is far bigger, with more buildings packed into it. Utrecht has its famous Dom, while, if Groningen has any big and/or famous buildings, I'm unaware of it. The station hall may be making a claim to fame; under construction a few years ago, its inside is now as ornately painted as the Sixtine Chapel. For the rest, there are a modern stylized statue of a farm horse with foal, and an older one of a maiden stretching stalks of wheat over her knees like a whip, her foot posed on the head of a calf. These are both located close to the station; unlike Utrecht, Groningen has no vast park to showcase its statues, only a strange glass monument in a field of crocuses. Still, the atmosphere is very much the same. I'd call Groningen a smaller, more provincial version of Utrecht. When the photos were being made, however, all I had reason to see of Groningen was its station, and consequently that is the only thing I made pictures of.
21-03-2004
That being said, these days I see a lot more of the
place, so I went on another photographing spree - digital camera this time, I do
learn from my mistakes - and added a couple of snapshots. (Incidentally, the
mare plus foal are gone, and the glass structure removed, probably having been
vandalized to fragments. The corn-maid is still there, though. Bronze just lasts
and lasts.)
Getting off at the station, one walks slap bang into the bus lanes, divided, as is customary at any major train station, into city buses and buses that go to other places (to the far right, with the white-roofed shelters). The NS railway logo on the second picture lets people know that yes, despite all appearances, this really is a train station. The red brick building was closed for repairs.
So I just photographed the outside. The interior is now as beautiful as the outside promises it to be.
More contemporary architecture: the white building has funny arcs in the window, the one on pillars a curving wall and lines of powder-blue glazed bricks. The passage under the pillars leads back to the trains.
Across from the station, a bridge painted in bright pastel blues and greens leads straight into the small, unspectacular heart of the town, or sideways into a kind of concert hall, sticking up from the water and interestingly tiled on the outside. This bridge usually has a person on it asking for money. "I could use your small change", the sign beside him reads. Yes, well, so could I.
While it is not exactly seedy, the back of this station (or its extreme side - I don't think this station has a back) looks even more totally unconnected with the concept "railway station" than the front.
And here is the much-praised inside of the restored station building, whose doors have finally opened to the public.
That pastel bridge again, with a funny ornament on the roof of the structure to the side. At its end, a blue cone to the right; to the left, some seats in what could be called a micro-park.
Then, through a narrow passage between high buildings (some quite ornate)...
And a highly political bit of graffiti about squatting, by the illegal inhabitants of this particular property.
More graffiti trying to be political? Walking round to the front of this structure, I couldn't make out a word of what was written (assuming it is writing). All I deduce is that the artist is a fan of the anime giant-robot genre.
I am now on the main street of Groningen, called "Gedempte Zuiderdiep", which goes on and on until it sweeps round a corner and splits in two.
This is the route to the laundrette, on which I pass computer shops, a shop selling Disney figures and other statuettes (prizes for who spots Lara Croft) and the same kind of faux-British establishments I would find in Utrecht.
I return via the main square, which as always is called "Marktplein" and which, on its multi-tiered tower, has a sundial one tier below the clock face.
On this particular day a crowd had gathered to see some medieval play (a chap in chain mail is hugging Rapunzel, though it's hard to make out on the photograph). That thing dangling above the blue sign on the second picture is a wooden carving of a body floating on its back, possibly a prop for the play.
A market around a building called "De Korenbeurs" (the Grain Exchange?) behind which I can see yet another towering structure.
The church that the structure belongs to comes into view as I return to the station through a narrow street, at then end of which I see the domes of what I thought might be a mosque, but what turns out to be a synagogue.
Nearing the station: the green smear near the lamppost is the bronze statue, almost made invisible by its tarnished surface, of the corn-person using the calf as a foot-rest; behind her, yet another towering structure. (Updated 25-07-2004 with a better shot - practically had to stand in the middle of the road for this one...)
One would think there's not much to see about the drab buildings to the station's side, and in general, one would be right. They have their little architectural surprises, though, like the domed structure visible to the right of the traffic lights.
Back at the station: one last wistful look past the bycycles at the kind of house that probably costs a fortune to buy and maintain, but has it all: big house, big garden, that look of distinction, close to shops and public transport and smack bang in the middle of a bustling town. (I'm still not calling it a city.)
Finally, for those who might be thinking Groningen is an aesthetically pleasing town to live in: the desolate suburb Groningen-Noord.
