Anyone looking for a nice gravel route in the Wadden Sea should try hard. Really. After all, fields are in use for crops and a large forest or nature reserve is almost absent in this region. No hipsters with handlebar bags and a flannel lumberjack shirt here. Farm roads have concrete slabs. The express cycle route from Winsum to Groningen and vice versa is neat and tidy. No shell path here. Asphalt outside the villages. Cobblestones around the church. Gravel bike. The 'Grunninger' laughs about it. Nothing for him.
Cyclists walk (to) Spoke in Groningen
From the basement (or is it the kitchen), a jolly man shoots up. While one of us keeps Spaak's barista talking, my attention turns to the man from the cellar. A sharp 'moi' sounds from his mouth. Groningen for 'hi, hello, goodbye' and many other forms of saying hello. When I ask about Martijn, he laughingly says: 'Officially I am!' What then the unofficial is, I don't find out. A nice conversation ensues about the company Spoke, about why we are here and about cycling. Martijn has passion for the business. He is in the kitchen, in the shop and suddenly he is also gone. On his way to a customer and for an errand outside the door.
The company Spoke is a nice mix of coffee shop, bike retail and repair. Understandably, this is a dedicated Shimano Sevice Centre and also a sales point for Focus bicycles and bikes from Schindelhauer. Every weekend day, 'spoke rides' leave and invariably end on the Oude Boteringestraat in the centre of Groningen. In that respect, it is a business with passion. Lovely coming home.
All against
Headwinds This is what the region is known for. You can mention the Wadden in the same breath as wind. Hence the windmills adorn the landscape. The pun 'Wad a wind' is now well-worn. The wind blows hard in the face. The snot in front of the eyes they call it. Literally in this case. Keep grinding, no matter what. The headwind makes you see even better what the region is famous for: its vastness. Straight roads. Fields. Views. It is almost a straight line from Groningen to Appingedam. With some difficulty, we manage to cycle a stretch of unpaved road in it. Thesinge offers a solution
Suspended kitchens
In the small town of Appingedam, it is a clash of old and new. Anyone entering the town must first struggle through the new buildings before finally arriving in the atmospheric centre. Many Dutch people will only know Appingedam from topography lessons. In the sequence Appingedam, Stadskanaal, Delfzijl. In a pinch with the Eems and the Dollard. Anyone expecting a 1970s shopping centre in Appingedam will be disappointed. Appingedam has atmosphere. In the centre of Appingedam, the phenomenon of hanging kitchens is the town's main attraction. Interesting detail: normally, towns also have these kinds of hanging structures. These then do not contain kitchens, but rather the drains. The three kitchens are a great photo spot in the heart of this little town.
Eating in church, sleeping in synagogue
Many churches in the Netherlands have been converted into living quarters, training venues or restaurants. Examples abound. The most beautiful bookstore in the Netherlands, Waanders in de Broeren is perhaps the pinnacle. Also in Appingedam is Restaurant the Basilica fallen prey to dwindling church attendance and transformed into an atmospheric restaurant. Here you can find pure and local produce. The gastronomy of the region is usually reflected in the mustard soup. That can be found on the menu at almost every restaurant. After three attempts in two days, I have figured it out. There is an art to making a good mustard soup. They have certainly mastered this art here. Salient detail: this church now houses a champagne cooler on the site of the former baptismal font. The church also includes a B&B. It is located in a synagogue. They also have a café. Where that is located then. Actually, that's all off God anyway.
G(r)on(ing)e(n) with the wind
The landscape between Appingedam and north-western Loppersum is a mosaic of clay soil and fields. Sometimes the two coincide, other times they do not. In it, the railway line between Groningen and Roodeschool forms an unnatural separation. The inhabitants of this region do not hide their origins. There is active flagging here. Not only the Groningen square colour, but also for Ukraine. As funny as it sounds, it provides extra colour. Colour that does show up in the brick houses. Our previous route also came partly through this part of Groningen. Here you repeatedly come across paths that invite you to dig. They very often end up at the beginning of a meadow, where you can't go any further. It is literally hard to find unpaved paths.
Middelstum
Around Middelstum, roughly in the middle of the province, is a typical little forest we know from the suburbs. As if the municipality had thought about it, there is a shell path through it. You can drive those in several ways. Gravel lovers be like, yeah! We turn towards a beautiful borg, which also has a gravel path around it. This is where the locals like to come, but mainly to walk the dog. For the gravel freaks, this is just a shell path. In Groningen, which is sparsely sown with gravel strips, it is a welcome change.
You can't go wrong, can you
Several times in this route we turn into a path that just invites us to ride, only to have to turn around again after 200 metres. Maybe we should just pay the local farmers to ride across their pastures. As an alternative, then, we ride beside the road rather than on it more often. Along many asphalt lanes is a nice gravel path. So we still get the unpaved metres we are looking for. Beyond Ten Post, we follow a small stream towards Krangweer. Here there is a narrow concrete path, with a nice wide gravel strip next to it. That is enjoyable. Further on, it is also a bit wet. That bike must and will come back dirty!
Fair is fair
The Wadden area should lend itself perfectly to gravel paths. There is lots of meadow, lots of space and on the map you see lots of small paths. But if you are looking for gravel in the Wadden, it is limited to shorter strips, paths and a patch of grass here and there. The route we rode was nevertheless enjoyable. With beautiful winding roads along water, through nature and the vastness of the landscape. We cannot yet call ourselves the gravel kings of Groningen. But beautiful it was.
