1. What is Groningen

1.1. Where is Groningen situated?

The Dutch province of Groningen is situated in the Northeastern corner of the Netherlands, between the Waddenzee and the mouth of the Eems in the north, the german border in the east and Friesland in the west. The city of Groningen, the largest city of the Northern part of the Netherlands, is situated on the northernmost slopes of the Hondsrug. The province is part of the Eems-Dollard Region

1.2. What are the main towns in the Groningen Province?

First of all, Groningen, a large and very old university city, build on the site of what once was an old saxon village and a roman villa, Gruonenga. The city has a population that exceeds 160,000. On the northern coast, there is a harbour city, Delfzijl, and just to the south of Delfzijl the old and beautiful town of Appingedam. More southwards, on the vast plain of the Oldambt, you will find Winschoten, beside Groningen and Appingedam the third town in the province to have traditional city rights. Westwards of Winschoten, in the so-called Veen colonies, the land once cultivated by digging peat, you will find Stadskanaal and Veendam.

1.3. How have people survived in Groningen throughout the ages?

An important part was agriculture. In the Oldambt and Reiderland, in the North-east of Groningen, constant gaining of new land made the large farmers pretty rich, which you still can see by looking at the massive farmhouses in, for example, Finsterwolde or Bellingwolde. The Veen colonies used to be moorland (veen is dutch for moor, fen), as well as across the border in Ostfriesland, and peat provided an important national resource then. Later on industry, mainly potato-flour and cardboard factories, flourished in villages like Oude Pekela. Nowadays, there is still a bit of cardboard industry and also potato-flour industry left, but not very much, and unemployment is pretty high throughout the province. The hellish working conditions accompanying the cultivation of the moorland and also of the farm workers in the north gave birth to a militant workers movement, which, during the time of the Cold War, scared the bosses in the Hague pretty much.

1.4. What are the main regions in the province of Groningen?

Near the border with Friesland, the Westerkwartier, green farmland. Straight to the north of Groningen, Hunsingo, Fivelingo (near Delfzijl) and the Hogeland, where you can find the so-called "wierden", artificial hills upon which villages were build during the time that the sea was still a very powerful enemy. More to the east, the claylands of Reiderland and the Oldambt, with the majestic farmhouses. To the south of the Oldambt lie the Veen colonies, once an important industrial region, and Westerwolde, sandgrounds which are quite unlike the wide plains in the rest of Groningen. Here are some heathlands and forests, and sometimes there are actually hills! (Well, no more than 14 meters high, they were shaped when the receding glaciers during the second-last ice age sometimes gained ground again and pushed up the sand and stones they had left earlier on).

2. Language and Dialect.

2.1. Language? Don't they speak just some dialect of Dutch up there?

Nope. The dialects of Groningen are actually dialects of the Lower Saxon language, which is closely related to the dialects of Drenthe, Overijssel and the Achterhoek, and across the border, Plattduuts. The Lower Saxonian dialects are pretty incomprehensible with dialects of Dutch.

2.2. How many people speak that?

According to the Ethnologue Database, in the Netherlands some 1.5 million people, in Germany more still. You might find out more on the Lowlands page.

2.3. Is there written literature in the dialects of Groningen?

Yes, there is. You might want to look at the magazine Krödde magazine, which publishes literature written in the Groningen dialects. Part of it can be read on-line, one poem and one short story in the language per issue, and back issues can also be read on-line. One interesting writer from Winschoten, by the way, is the late Saul van Messel (Jaap Meijer), a jewish poet who writes occasionally in Grunnegs, occasionally in Dutch shot through with Yiddish words. His poems are sometimes humourous, sometimes very bitter.

3. What can one do in Groningen?

3.1 Are there many sights to see in the province of Groningen?

There most certainly are. To name a few: - The city of Groningen, our bustling metropolis, with the beautiful Groninger Museum.
- Appingedam, a small, very old town with beautiful houses and the renowned "hanging kitchens" (I have seen only three of them in Appingedam an it may be that the same tree are featured on all photographs of them, but I may be wrong).
- Little wee cute ill seals at the seal-creche in Pieterburen.
- The "borgen", the medieval estates of the local nobility, some of them are: Menkemaborg, in Uithuizen, Fraeylemaborg (sorry if I got the name wrong) in Slochteren, and Borg Verhildersum in Leens. In Wedde, there is the core of a medieval castle, used by a particularly nasty breed of nobility before the 16th century. It is used as some office building now, though.
- The garrison town of Bourtange, totally restored in its 1742 shape, with large earth walls and ditches and beautiful soldier's houses. Sometimes they even shoot with big guns out there.
- The island of Schiermonnikoog, for some vague reason belonging to the Frisians, but only reachable per boat from the harbour of Lauwersoog, which is connected with Groningen town through regular bus lines. Schiermonnikoog is a small and extremely beautiful island with forests and rough dune landscape. There is one small village on Schiermonnikoog, two lighthouses and an unbelievable number of rabbits.

3.2. If I want to get drunk in Groningen Town, where should I go?

That shouldn't be much of a problem. If you want to get drunk being smothered between large numbers of pigfaced students, go to any bar on the southside of the Grote Markt or in the Poelestraat. If you want to get drunk listening to punk music, check out Vera in the Oosterstraat or Simplon in the Boterdiep. Some other OK pubs are Het Paard van Troje, in a side alley near the univeristy buildings on the Oude Kijk in't Jat Straat, Der Witz, on, yes, okay, I'm sorry, the southside of the Grote Markt and the Vestibule on the Oosterstraat. De Spieghel is a jazz bar in the Peperstraat, O'Ceallaigh's an Irish pub on the Kattediep, if I'm not mistaken. Should you go thirsty in Stadskanaal, check out the Mingelmous near the movie theatre in the centre (considering the size of the centre of Stadskanaal, this shouldn't be too hard).

3.3. Are there any Youth Hostels in Groningen Town?

Simplon Youth Hotel, at Simplon, an old factory building on the Boteringestraat.

3.4. All right. You may describe the landscape of Groningen now, if you wish.

Thank you! In my opinion, the province of Groningen is one of the most beautiful countries you'll find in the Netherlands. The plain lands of the Veen Colony, Oldambt, Reiderland, Hunsingo etc. are incredibly vast, and you can look for miles and miles in all directions without your sight being obscured by stupid trees and city skylines. We have also perhaps the cleanest air in the Netherlands, you will only occasionally sniff the full, honest scent of the AVEBE potato-flour factories, and of the sugar beet factory in Groningen Town. It might be important to be careful with it as some people don't know anything better to do with our country than to flood it, build military bases on it, or import large numbers of foul-reeking pigs to irritate our nostrils, among others. We should be able to do better than that.

3.5. What's the poem on the link page about?

It's a poem I wrote about the area between Nieuwe Pekela en Stadskanaal. A very beautiful piece of land. The Tweederdeweg is a land road over there. Sorry for the creaky english translation. I'll make a better one soon.

3.6. Who are you, by the way?

I am Merlijn de Smit, born in 1977 in Veendam, grown up in Oude Pekela, studying in Groningen and now temporarily in Turku, Finland.