Climb the Martinitoren for the view, then work outward: the Groninger Museum on its island by the station, the Forum roof terrace over the Nieuwe Markt, and the Noorderplantsoen laid over the old ramparts. Two days covers the city. Add a third for Schiermonnikoog or the Wadden Sea centre at Lauwersoog.
Groningen is the capital of the Dutch north and the youngest city in the country by average age, a university town of some 33,000 students inside a centre you can cross on foot in twenty minutes. About 60 percent of trips in that centre are made by bike. The Wadden Sea coast starts an hour north.
Groningen's 96.8 metre tower, the third on the site and finished in 1554, with a 260-step brick spiral to the viewing platforms. Locals call it d'Olle Grieze, the old grey one. The 62-bell carillon is played on Tuesday and Friday afternoons.
Three pavilions on an island in the canal between the station and the centre, built to a plan by Alessandro Mendini with Philippe Starck and Coop Himmelb(l)au and opened in 1994. A silver drum, a yellow tower and a folded blue box, arguing with each other. The collection runs from local history to contemporary design.
Ten storeys of library, cinemas, exhibition halls and the Storyworld comic and animation museum, opened on the Nieuwe Markt in November 2019. The draw is the roof: the highest public terrace in the city, with the Martinitoren head-on across the square.
The city's ramparts became a park in the 1880s and the shape still shows: a curving strip of water, bridges and lawn wrapped around the north-west edge of the centre. Fifteen minutes on foot from the station, and the first place the city goes the moment the sun is out.
The oldest church in the city and the tower's parent, with medieval frescoes in the choir and a celebrated organ rebuilt by Arp Schnitger. It is still a working parish church, so opening follows the service and concert calendar rather than a fixed timetable.
Groningen's market square since the 1600s, with the columned Korenbeurs corn exchange down one side, reused as a supermarket behind its original facade. Stalls fill the square on market days, and Der Aa-kerk closes the western end.
The city's other medieval church, on the west side of the Vismarkt, and after the Martinikerk the most important medieval building in Groningen. It is deconsecrated and now works as a concert and events hall, so the programme decides whether you can get in.
A walled renaissance garden laid out in 1626 for stadholder Willem Frederik and Albertine Agnes, two minutes from the Grote Markt and hidden behind a high brick wall. Box hedges, a rose garden and a herb parterre, and almost nobody in it.
Fifteen centuries of northern Dutch seafaring, from Hanseatic trade to the collapse of Groningen shipbuilding in the 1950s, laid out through two linked medieval houses beside the old harbour. The building is half the exhibit.
The largest botanical garden in the Netherlands, ten kilometres south of the centre, with a walled Chinese garden at its heart. Its collection traces back to the apothecary's garden Henricus Munting founded in the city in 1626.
University streets north of the centre, with sharp new architecture pushed up against them.
Quiet, leafy streets of well-kept older houses, a few minutes by bike from the centre.
Car-free Wadden island of dunes and wide beaches, reached by ferry from Lauwersoog.
A moated manor at Uithuizen, one of the best-kept borgen in the north, and reachable by train.
A national park on the old sea inlet, and some of the darkest night skies in the country.
Four days of European showcase gigs across the city, closing with the Dutch-only Noorderslag night.
The canals become the largest free market in the north, with music on the Vismarkt all day.
One of the national Liberation Day festivals, free all afternoon and evening in the Stadspark.
More than 150 acts across the centre, pairing scientists with artists for one night.
Europe's largest student introduction week fills the centre before term starts.
Eleven days of international performing arts staged in and around the Noorderplantsoen.
The city marks the lifting of the bishop of Münster's 1672 siege, its oldest civic date.
Historic ships tie up along the Hoge and Lage der A for a free winter fair in the A-Kwartier.
The practical way in from abroad. Direct trains run to Groningen around 18 times a day, and the fastest scheduled journey is about 2 hours 8 minutes.
The local airport, 15 km south of the city, with a short regional network. A Qbuzz bus links it to the centre in about 15 minutes.
Groningen station is the northern terminus of the intercity network: NS trains run south to Zwolle, Utrecht and Amsterdam, and Arriva stop trains out to Delfzijl, Veendam and Leeuwarden.
About 60 percent of trips inside the centre are made by bike, and the station holds one of the largest OV-fiets depots in the country. Qbuzz runs the city and regional buses.
A soft-boiled egg wrapped in ragout, breaded and fried. Snackbar food, and listed intangible heritage.
A dense spice cake of cinnamon, cloves and anise, sliced thin and buttered.
Yeasted buckwheat and wheat batter with currants, steamed in its own tin.
Battered cod chunks from a market stall, eaten with garlic sauce.
The Dutch bar standard: breaded beef ragout, served with mustard.
A creamy soup built on the coarse local mustard, sharper than the Dutch standard.
A stamppot of white beans and green beans, with potato and bacon.
Split pea soup thick enough to stand a spoon in, a fixture of the northern winter.
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