The next leg: from Groningen to Zuidlaren

This is a 21 km walk that we will be splitting over two days. Elma and I will be walking on May 24 and 25; probably Nic and the boys will come too. The distances are nice and short, 10 km a day, and we will include a visit to the Drents Museum in Assen to see the Chinese Terracotta army (one of Elma's boys is doing a school project on these figures and really wants to see this exhibit).

Day one we will probably walk from Groningen to a midway point (Paterswolde is a bit out of the way but looks like the best option so far). Day two we'll walk the rest of the way to Zuidlaren, of course visiting the well preserved G1 Hunebed (Dolmen) of Midlaren on the way (between Midlaren and Zuidlaren on the Schutsweg) - and having arrived in Zuidlaren we will probably go on to the museum in Assen by car, and after that drive back home.

I did some reading and found that there's a nice little wooded nature reserve called Appelbergen east of Glimmen which is quite popular. Through the woods runs a medieval highway, called Hoge Hereweg. There are two Hunebedden (Dolmen) in this wood but they were destroyed quite some time ago. It seems that during WW2, some 20 to 30 Dutch people were executed and secretly buried in this forest. The bodies have not been found yet despite much searching.

We will be moving from Groningen province into Drenthe, crossing the provincial boundary just south of Noordlaarderbos. This forest forms the barrier between the Hondsrug ridge and the Drenthse Aa river valley. We should be able to see the change from clay grounds in Groningen to the sandier soil of Drenthe, the landscape should also become more undulating and wooded as we move into Drenthe.

We will be walking along the Hondsrug, a long sand hill which was pushed upwards by gletchers back in the Saalien ice age. Hondsrug does not refer to a dog as the name first suggests, but to the Hunze river which runs through that area. The first part of the route will go along the Noord Willemskanaal, a very old waterway (canal) and one of the city of Groningen's main traffic arteries in the old days.


We'll be overnighting in Glimmen, over here. It looks wonderful!