Pleasantly surprised by Groningen. Lots of interesting architecture!

We had pretty much had enough of cities, and so we were actually going to bypass the fairly large (pop 200,000) city of Groningen. 

But we had to go to the outskirts to get one of our propane tanks filled, and once we were there we realized it was only a 2.5 km (1.5 mile) walk to the downtown area.

We woke up to a beautiful rainbow.

Ruth opened the door and this is what she saw!

Couldn't fit the whole thing in.

Max's first propane tank ran out on July 10th, so based on that I figured we had until July 31st until the second one ran out. The problem is that propane filling is not standardized in Europe, and they have very strict regulations. 

Had we been in Germany where our original bottles are from, it would have been easy to simply exchange an empty one for a full one. But in Netherlands, we were told we could not exchange, that we had to go to a filling station and there are hardly any of them. In fact in the entire northern part of the country, there is only one place, and it's located on the outskirts of Groningen.

So that is where we headed.

Scenery along the way.

All electric bus.

There are a lot of electric vehicles in Netherlands. There are charge stations everywhere, and there are a lot of Teslas on the road. Not only Teslas... many electric cars made by many manufacturers.

We found the propane place, located at Twin Seasons outdoor store. The guy was friendly and explained that they are the only place in the north part of the country to get a tank filled, and they will refill tanks from any country.., they have all the proper fittings and adapters... but they aren't cheap. 

Our 11 kg bottle cost €30 ($44.50 CAD, $35.50 USD) to fill. Essentially, the 11 kg bottles hold about 21 liters (5.5 gallons) of product. 

In Germany, we have been told we can exchange a tank for between €20 and €25. Also not cheap.

I think we are going to have a self fillable system installed while we are back in Canada. This will cost money initially, but will save money and aggravation later.

With our propane tank filled, we walked into the city.

Colorful building.

Boats everywhere.

Bicycles everywhere.

Outdoor patios.

Scenery along the way.

Weird to see this modern building amidst all the old ones.

We learned that we can go to the top for a view, so we returned later!

No, it's not leaning!

I had forgotten to bring the camera, so these photos were all taken with the phone. The distortion is greater for shots like this.

This little building is attached to the big church.

The old market building now houses a modern supermarket.

Lots of pedestrian streets.

This interesting building now has a fitness center as it's main floor client.

Scenery along the way.

Lots of interesting architecture!

We returned to the modern building we had seen earlier. It's called "The Forum" and it's the main city library, but there is also a movie theater and a restaurant on the top floor. I was totally shocked that you could get to the top floor viewing deck for free. I would have bet money that it would have cost money.

On the top floor viewing deck.

The church dates back to the 13th century.

Views of Groningen.

Unfortunately, they charge to see the inside.

We've seen a lot of beautiful churches around the world for free.

Inside the library, we sat and watched Olympics gymnastics for a while.

It was almost 3:30pm by the time we made it back to Max. And we still had to do some grocery shopping and figure out where we were going to spend the night.

I found a small town nearby that had both a Jumbo and an Aldi next door to each other, so we drove over there. Afterwards, I had spotted on google satellite view a small parking area at the trailhead of a rural park. We arrived there, and it looked perfect for a quiet night.

Max, parked up for the night at GPS 53.197662, 6.798145

A couple of dog walkers came in and gave us a smile and a wave, but otherwise it was totally quiet.

Sunset at 9:20pm.

Max!

Slept well. A totally quiet night.

Except, at some point in the night our propane ran out. We didn't get quite as long out of the second tank. 19 days. So we cut that a little close, but it's good to learn Max's limitations. As I said earlier, we hope to get a refillable system installed when he's in storage back at the dealer while we go to Canada in two weeks time.

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Nice deal on Bedsure Pet Beds. All sizes and colors on sale.

And in Canada...

Ninja Blender