Groutnis Oet Grunnen - Trip to Groningen

Groutnis Oet Grunnen means as much as Greetings from Groningen in the Groningen dialect.
So. Yesterday I went for a trip to Groningen, in the north-east part of the Netherlands. By train.

I was accompanied by a good friend of mine. Humphrey. A plush green frog.
He needed to make a photo report for this week's Humphrey's FotoFrog Friday. It is fun hanging out with Humphrey and since we both wanted to shoot some pictures, we went together.

It is great walking around in Groningen - except for the rain and the cold weather. Lots of small streets, antique shops, boutiques, galleries and old buildings.
In fact. We were so busy walking and looking around that we did not notice the time. No time left to visit the Groninger Museum, like I wrote yesterday. We passed by it. Great building, very outstanding architecture. But I did not see the inside...

From the Grote Markt I made this picture of the Martini Tower, the most famous landmark of Groningen. We did not climb it. Would be too much stairs for small plush toy animals like us. Besides that, unfortunately the Martini Tower does not have anything to do with the popular drink.


There are lots of historical buildings in Groningen. One is the Goudkantoor, the Gold Office. Let's do the blah thing and pretend I was really interested ;-) (We spent more time posing and making the pictures than actually looking at the building, but hey, it was raining, we wanted to get inside...)
The Goudkantoor was built as the provincial tax office in 1635. The inscription 'Date Caesari quae sunt Ceasaris' or 'Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's' still refers to this function. With its richly decorated façades, this is the last building in Groningen that was built in Renaissance style. In fact, the building only received the name 'Goudkantoor' in the nineteenth century when the 'bureau van waarborg van goud en zilver' (office to safeguard gold and silver) settled here. The Goudkantoor was comprehensively restored in 1996. A restaurant has occupied the building since then.


After we passed by a restaurant named Humphrey's, Humphrey was unstoppable. Started to jump and dance on the streets. It looked like the classic movie scene Singing in the Rain. But with a frog. And believe me, a dancing Humphrey looks in no way like a dancing Kermit...
Of course Humphrey insisted on dining at Humphrey's. He hoped to get a free meal, pretending to be the owner. It did not work out. They found out the real owner did not have green eyebrows and Humphrey does. Anyways, it was a nice way to end our day in Groningen.