trips out of 050 (groningen)
Here are some circular trips out of Groningen, or 050, as it is also referred to by the people living here. For bicyclists this is interesting country. It is flatter than North-Holland where there are many dikes between the polders, bridges over canals, and dunes at the coast. The land of Groningen is a salt marsh that has been made fit for agriculture over a couple of centuries. Groningen city results from a small settlement on the northern part of the ‘Hondsrug’, a long slightly raised tongue of boulder clay running south-east/north-west through the province of Drenthe. Around there people have cultivated the marshes. About 20km north of City runs an old sea dike through the land. The new dike is another 20km further north, thus offering a clear border between older and newer land.
Going north, one leaves the grasslands for dairy farms and enters arable land. That makes for another organization of the land. Cycling along the fields, I seemed to be in the area’s of Picardy, between Cambrai and St. Quentin, but then without the hills. So, enjoy these trips when you want to have a holiday around the corner.
View on Loppersum
Groningen_Loppersum_Uithuizermeeden
This route starts over the so-called Stadsweg, a recently completed bicycle route from Groningen City to Ten Post. It turns off to the north going through Loppersum, the village that recently has suffered some heavy earthquakes due to the extraction of natural gas.
Trip 77,5km
Groningen-Zoutkamp
Zoutkamp is the end of the Reitdiep, the connection between Groningen City and the (Lauwers) sea — now it is a lake, Lauwersmeer, the sea was diked-off from the Waddenzee.
Trip 67km
Groningen-Buitenpost
A trip where you stay in the land of the dairy farms, partly through Friesland.
Trip 77km
Gaarkeuken
Well, loop up ‘Gaarkeuken’, and you know why you have to do this little trip.
Trip 56km
Breakfast in Leer, lunch in Aurich, tea in Emden
Good, this trip is not starting in 050 but in Leer, just over the border in Ost-Friesland. A nice area along the river Ems with small towns and villages among a moor-landscape.
Trip: 85km
Harbour of Lauwersoog
Groningen to Lauwersoog
The Lauwersmeer is a former bay of the Waddenzee; Lauwersoog is now the harbour for the shrimp fishers from Zoutkamp.
Trip: 84km
Groningen-Zeerijp-Slochteren
A round trip through the area that is at present (2012-2019) hit by regular earthquakes due to the extraction of natural gas. Typically for here, churches have a tower that is separate from the ship.
Trip: 80km