Garnwerd to Groningen (13 km) on Sunday, 27 April 2008

We left Garnwerd after nine in the morning, after a good honest Dutch breakfast prepared by our Francophile host.

Walking out of Garnwerd my right foot started to bother me, it got steadily worse as we walked on. In the end it was so painful -even with painkillers and Diclofenac- that I took the bus to Groningen station over the last km or so while Elma walked that last distance. Almost two weeks later the foot is still painful when I walk, so I'll have to have it medically seen to.

The walk itself was delightful, a good part of it ran alongside the Reitdiep canal. It seems that the Reitdiep valley is the oldest man-made landscape in Europe, created by the Hunze river that connected Groningen to the sea. The weather was sublime.

Along the way we saw a gorgeous little church at Oostum from the 13th century. it's built on on a terp wierde (In Groningen it's called wierde, in Friesland it's called terp), a piece of land that was artificially heightened back when this area was regularly flooded. Most of that has been excavated now, only the churches and graveyards are still up high.

A bit further on, just before crossing the canal, we encountered a restaurant with tables on the side of the road overlooking the water. Of course we sat down and enjoyed a cup of coffee and some cherry(?)tart. We heard from a variety of people there that good walking shoes are of the utmost importance when doing such a walk. My foot by that time was hurting a lot so I was pathetic, and Elma was walking in bright red ski boots which of course attracted comment ;-)
One couple told us of a long distance walk (old pilgrim route) of about 800 km called el Camino de Santiago, they made it sound very attractive but I think I'll have to be a bit fitter and more experienced before I tackle that one.

The walk took us over the meandering Paddepoelster Road which is a very old road. Eventually we crossed the Van Starkenborgh canal into Groningen, sat for a while on a bench and watched the world go by. Also sitting on a bench next to us were two youngsters who were also doing the walk, and I was relieved to see the one girl in even worse shape than I was! After that we followed cycle roads and walking paths until we reached the city itself and I hopped (crawled) on a bus towards the station. Elma will have to correct me on details or add some more info because I was rather wasted this day because of the pain in my foot.



And here are Elma's pictures:




I learned a few things on this walk:
- make the backpack as light as possible.
- walking with a human is completely different to walking with a dog.
- asphalt walking hurts the feet.
- definitely need to do something about the level of fitness.
- around 10 - 15 km a day is a good length for a weekend walker like me.
- I really loved walking like this even though the foot hurt like hell.
- I'm going to finish this walk, and then do a next one. And a next one. And a next.

Elma and I decided that we'd do the next leg on the weekend of 24 & 25 May. That will take us from Groningen to Zuidlaren, the total distance is 21 km. It's supposed to be one leg but we'll be splitting it over two days, it comes down to about 10km a day. As time goes on and we get fitter and more experienced we will probably do longer distances, but it's not an endurance race - the main intention after all, is to enjoy the walk and get to know this country of ours from a totally different angle.