Trip to Groningen. Repin's exposition. Amersfoort.
First Big Trip of AMA Dept Big Travelers.
16 March 2002.
Delft - The Hague - Groningen - Amersfoort - The Hague - Delft.
Groningen. Repin. Martini Tower. Amersfoort. 6 hours (even more) in the trains.
First of all, what doess AMA Dept Big Travelers mean? Who are they? They are PhD students of the Department of Applied Mathematical Analysis at Delft University of Technology. By names: Alexey Andrianov, Xander Campman, Daria Spivakovskaya, Dwi Riyanti and Maria Zarubinskaya. Everybody is very welcome to participate in our next great trips.

The first big trip was organized on 16 of March 2002 to Groningen. The main reason visiting Groningen was the beautiful exposition of Ilya Repin there. And just sightseeing as well. The plan was discussed with X and on February' 11 I sent 'invitation for participation'. After a long time of discussions etc. the trip was scheduled on March' 16.

16 March 2002.
Travelers: Alex, Daria, Dwi, Xander.
The long-expected trip started for me at 7.20 when I wake up. Morning procedures, putting some kilos of information and bananas into my bag and I went to Delft train station. Meeting with Dwi and Daria there and at 8.18 we started our trip.
Meeting with Xander in The Hague and from Den Haag Centraal station we went to Groningen. The distance is more than 300 km, so we spent around 3 hours in the Intercity train, talking, drinking, reading etc. At 11.15 we arrived at our destination - Groningen.
The 'Groninger Museum' where exposition took place is located near train station, so in a few minutes we were there and after 20 minutes of waiting we entered the museum. The name of the exhibition 'Ilya Repin. The Secret of Russia'. Ilya Repin (1844 - 1930) - one of the most famous Russian painters. From Moscow's and St.Petersburg's museums all famous paintings of I.Repin were brought such as 'Barge Haulers on the Volga', 'Krestny Khod', 'Unexpected Return', 'Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan', 'The Rest', 'The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mahmoud IV', Portraits of the Composer Modest Musorgsky, of the Surgeon Nikolay Pirogov, of the Poet Afanasiy Fet, Portrait of the Art Critic Vladimir Stasov, and Portrait of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy and many others.
We liked the exposition very much and the Dutch people liked it as well. 200.000 people visit it till the end of March only.
After visiting the museum we went to the centrum of Groningen, seeing the sights. Groningen is located in the North of Holland but real spring started there (contrary to Delft) - a lot of flowers and leafs, sunny and warm weather. Groningen is quite different from southern cities of Holland.
We had lunch on the Markt with traditional food of the province. Interesting old House of Province: Groningen is administrative centre of same-called province of The Netherlands.
Martini Church with Tower of height 96 meters - second by height in Holland (I beleive that first is Tower of New Church [Nieuwe Kerk] in Delft). Of course, we were extremely enthousiastic in going to the top of the Tower! 311 stairs to the top, 4 viewing galleries on 48, 56, 68 and 71 meters of height, from them is very nice view on the city and even surroundings (the area of the town is not so big). In the special bell room we heared voices of all bells.
Coffee break after climbing the Bell Tower near Church. Princenhof - old brown building. Garden (funny picture - see it below), other places of interest. Walking and watching, talking and photographing. Groningen is beautiful city and most northern point of Holland which all of us ever have visited (except Dwi - shi visited Roodeschool!).
At 17.18 we left Groningen. Rested in the train. Our second (unexpected) point of travel - Amersfoort. We arrived there at 18.57. It is a city half way from Amsterdam to Arnhem, not so big. Just walking through streets with discussion of science and the surroundings. After a break in the centre of town we went back to the train station.
Train trip to The Hague. Splitting up of our group: Xander went to his Scheveningen, three of us went to Delft by tram and train. We arrived back at 22.22.
Of course in the end we were quite tired - 6 hours in trains, 2 cities, 1 exposition, 1 tower and so on but every traveler was satisfied and happy about the trip and own impressions.
The Northern part of The Netherlands is quite different from the Southern part. More place for nature, other air. It was a very nice trip and I really liked it in general and all parts of the trip. Hopefully we will organize many new interesting travels.
Dank je wel, Spasibo and Terima kasih, dear colleagues - travelers for Your participation and nice friendly atmosphere during the trip and always.

So, it was the first (and very nice) trip of AMA Dept Big Travelers somewhere together.
Later were 2 other smaller trips: on 11 May 2002 to Haarlem and Leiden with Alex, Daria and Maria in group list and walking of Alex and Xander on 7 July 2002 from Scheveningen to Wassenaar through seaside's dunes.
Text:           
Alex Andrianov  
Xander Campman

16.03.2002. Groningen. Pictures.

Groningen. Xander, Dwi, Dasha, Alex.enlarge photo
House of Province (ProvincieHuise). Xander, Dwi, Dasha, Alex.

Groningen. Martini Tower. Xander, Dwi, Dasha.enlarge photo
Martini Tower and view from it. Xander, Dwi, Daria.

Groningen. Martini Tower. Alex.enlarge photo
Martini Tower (and view from it). Alex.

Groningen. We are at the Garden.enlarge photo
Garden. Dwi, Daria and little of Xander and Alex.

Alex.Site.Ru Alex.Site.En Alex.News Alex@mail

Rambler's Top100
Rated by PING [Index'99] MAFIA's Top100 WORLD1000