Groningen

Groningen is the largest city of the north and about a quarter of its population are students, which sets the tone. In 1977 the council implemented the Verkeerscirculatieplan: the centre was divided into four sectors, and driving between them was made impossible without going out to the ring road, while bicycles could cross freely - done overnight, hugely unpopular with shopkeepers at the time, and now the reference case for European city centres taking space back from cars. Something like sixty per cent of trips in the city are by bicycle, among the highest anywhere. The Martinitoren is ninety-seven metres and climbable, the Grote Markt was destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt, and the Groninger Museum sits on an island in the canal by the station, a deliberately clashing set of coloured pavilions by Mendini, Coop Himmelb(l)au and Starck from 1994.

What you actually see

• A centre closed to through traffic - the 1977 plan that made cycling the default.
• The Martinitoren - ninety-seven metres, climbable, over the Grote Markt.
• The Groninger Museum - clashing coloured pavilions on an island by the station.
• A student city - about a quarter of the population, which shapes everything.

When to go

April to October. Two days.

Honest expectations

Driving in the centre is deliberately difficult - come by train or bike. The Grote Markt is largely postwar rebuilding. Museums close on Mondays. The city empties somewhat in the summer holidays.

Nearby

Winsum and Niehove are north-west; Fraeylemaborg is east.