Germany Epic 2: (More) The Road to Germany

Our second full day on the continent started auspiciously enough, with a delicious breakfast at the Bed & Buddha B&B. The weather was just about holding, but we put on our surprisingly effective Mac in a Sac waterproofs and headed off towards Holland's largest Northern city and, by population, seventh biggest city overall: Groningen! We knew the weather was going to deteriorate and it did a bit. It wasn't awful. Nevertheless we headed directly to Groningen and, more by luck than judgement (ok perhaps there were equal parts luck and judgement) we found our way to a Mercure (I know, right) hotel in the excitingly-named Martiniplaza. It was nice.

The great thing about travelling light is having very few belongings or options in terms of clothes whenever you go out. Our waterproof kagouls also doubled as our only non-motorcycling jackets, which we donned to head out into the now mostly raining and grim city. It was a short walk to the inner part, which was surrounded by a big canal, a bit like a moat. Despite the inclement weather and persistent rain/drizzle (it's grim up North) Groningen was alright. We visited the free photography museum, which I think was having an exhibition on Venezualan conflict/demonstrations/riots/gangs, but it may have been another South American country. We ate soup in a soup restaurant which had no bathroom. Considering I had been saving going for a wee until I ate, that was a massive disappointment, especially since soup is really just elaborate liquid disguised/sold as a proper meal. Our decision to visit the soup place was mostly due to price and the fact it was called "Soup Dogg." With marketing like that, who needs a toilet? Apparently me and anyone with a bladder in Groningen. However, another good thing about the Netherlands, because you're not in France you can literally eat food in restaurants outside of specific lunch times. We therefore had a late lunch and bought fairly authentic Dutch apple pie and salads to have at the hotel.

The train station, which we simply visited to see the huge bike-parking facility and weird statue of a modernist man with a horse who seems ready to defecate, was gorgeous. Real character in that building, as well as one of those fast food places which sells burgers/falafel/chips/etc out of little semi-automated windows, like in the original Blade Runner. In cities, the best buildings are often the churches (although they can be a bit churchy) and the train stations (although they can be a bit trainy). There's a travellers' tip. Not a great travellers' tip, but a tip nonetheless.

I think a trip to Groningen is vaguely worthwhile. It's a nice little/big town, with some cute back streets and some interesting shops and eateries. There is a huge Museum of Groningen, with a rainbow crossing, but it was prohibitively expensive. It also seemed to be quite a big student town, which is arguably good. I've definitely been to worse Northern places (I'm looking at you almost everywhere in Northern England... not really... just most of you).

The next day we went to actual Germany. It was not much of a day. The roads were pretty boring and it rained hard. This is a downside to riding a motorcycle; rain can make things pretty unpleasant/pointless.

We went straight to the accommodation in Berne (not a million miles from Bremen), which was a shepherd's-type hut next to a bridge. It seemed the bridge had been usurped by a slightly cooler, swinging bridge, so the old road was now pretty much defunct. Suffice to say we achieve very little. Watched some TV, hoped the rain would stop. I took the bike to a genuine German supermarket to get foodstuffs as our hut had basic food-cooking. Otherwise we spent most of the day with the heating on lazing about. Not that epic. Still, it was day three and we'd got into Germany and stayed in three different places. We may have achieved more if the weather had been nicer. We may have not.