Niebert Windmill, Netherlands

The Niebert Windmill is still used for grinding flour, and you can watch it being ground, then buy some of it for your baking.

Interior , Niebert Windmill, Netherlands

This is a very tall windmill, I think there are six staircases inside it and we went up them all. In the Netherlands most stairs resemble ladders, they are incredibly steep, even within private homes, often it feels safer to go down them backwards as then you can hold on to the step as well as the handrail.

Interior Stairs, Niebert Windmill, Netherlands

The windmill is part working mill and part museum. You can watch flour being ground in some Scottish mills too, but ours are run by water power so don’t feature sails.

Stairs, Niebert Windmill, Netherlands

Nieder windmill view, Netherlands

It was incredibly windy up there and although I’m not usually bothered by heights, this was scary as the fence  is very small and it felt too easy to get blown over it. I didn’t stay there long! Somehow in the photo it doesn’t look at all high but six ‘ladders’ can’t lie! The flag is the Groningen state flag.

Nieder windmill, view from platform Groningen flag

Stairs , Nieder windmill, Netherlands

Platform , Nieder windmill, Netherlands

Sloten, Friesland, Netherlands

Sloten is another of the eleven ‘cities’ of Friesland, where they have ice skating races on the canals when they freeze hard enough.

Sloten Canal, Netherlands, Friesland

The photo below is just so Dutch, boats moored outside your house, a canal, a lovely hump-back bridge and a windmill – what more can you ask for?

Sloten Canal ,windmill , Friesland

Well, another bridge with Jack standing on it is all I have of Sloten, it’s a very quiet but scenic small town. Even smaller than I thought when we were there, apparently it only has about 700 inhabitants. It’s the smallest Elfsteden in Friesland, the smallest of the ‘eleven cities’  five of which we have visited. Hopefully we’ll be able to visit the others some time in the future.

Jack Canal, windmill , Sloten, Friesland, Netherlands

 

Groningen, the Netherlands

The biggest place which we visited during our recent Netherlands trip was the university town of Groningen. I like university towns because with a high population of young people they’re always vibrant.
Groningen bikes
We were well warned to be on the look-out for kamikaze cyclists, obviously there are always a lot of bikes around anywhere in the Netherlands but more so in university towns. In fact it wasn’t as dangerous an experience as Cambridge where the cyclists whizz around in a much more cavalier and dangerous fashion. Being so incredibly flat is obviously a big plus for cyclists, in fact I saw a lot of really elderly people who were still cycling and they looked like they were too old to be able to get about on their own, but they were doing fine, it’s a great way of keeping your legs strong it would seem.

Groningen Martini tower

The Martini Tower above seems to be the most famous landmark in Groningen. The photo below is of the sundial which is attached to the tower. I like sundials, especially when they are attached to ancient buildings like this.

Groningen tower sundial

Groningen old building

I took the photo above because I liked the look of the old building which must have started off as a grand venue for something but I didn’t manage to find out what its original use was, it’s now an eatery.

Lastly, I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this poster in a bookshop window. It’s in English of course and it amazed me how much English there was about the place. It must make it easier for people to learn the language I suppose, everyone seems to speak English anyway. That’s just a few of the Groningen photos which I took, next time you’ll see the town from the canal.

Groningen Books sign