Day 10 - Groningen (a day off)
The day started with an early 7am breakfast then a 9am parkrun which was held in Stadspark a 15-minute walk from the hotel which was good planning. With a lovely park, not too many runners and no time pressure it was a really fun run though I seem to get out of breath these days while not being very quick. The locals cycle to parkrun; it's just their standard way to get around and would work for most town parkruns in the UK if we had the cycle infrastructure. You can see the orderly approach to bike parking.
Philosophical image created by ChatGPT.
While on the subject of parkrun it has reached a significant milestone across over 2,000 venues worldwide; one million parkrun events in June 2026.
When you finish parkrun you are given a token which is numbered and gets linked to your finish time. You then get your personal barcode and your finish token barcode scanned to get a finish result. The finish tokens are collected in any old receptical for reuse. Today the tokens go in a clog (klompen). The only other pair of clogs I have seen were being worn in the street by a regular Joe in Utrecht. Phew, that was a long way round sneaking in the fact that Holland [sic] has given up on clogs.
On the walk back to the hotel I heard a band playing so I followed the music to see that the convoy of emergency vehicles I saw on my way to parkrun had resolved itself into an exhibition of emergency service vehicles; I am unsure of the actual event but people were filing into an exhibition hall.
Around day ten on a journey I start to wonder where the time has gone. Time takes on an elestic quality when cycling or walking all day, eating, sleeping and repeating. My travelling is going well and the cycling does mean I lose track of time which expands and contracts according to how much I am absorbed in the passing landscape, enjoying a coffee and apple cake, or trying to meet a deadline such as parkrun at 9am or a check-in at 5pm. The flexible nature of how we perceive time and how we need to find ways to anchor that to the specific dates and times that the world supplies is a challenge.
After parkrun I visit Groningen Museum which has an exhibition exploring time; what a coincidence!
Groningen has under 250,000 residents, is the capital of the north and has plenty of bike shops. The bikes themselves are the traditional Dutch sit-up-and-beg variety though increasingly they come in an e-bike format. The bikes being ridden are relatively new and in good condition; they need to be as they are work horses carrying shopping, young children and occasionally friends. They most likely have hub gears and frequently come with back pedal brakes all for ease of maintenance and no clothing getting caught on a greasy chain. Step through frames are the norm.
