Recently, I had a visitor to my home in the Netherlands. He was very small, very flat, and arrived in an envelope. His name is Flat Stanley. He told me that he was crushed when a bulletin board fell on him. But he's a pretty optimistic fella, so he uses his new condition as an excuse to easily travel around the world. A postage stamp is a lot cheaper than a plane ticket - a fact I can attest to. So his first stop was to visit me. I took him around my little city.
Spring is just beginning, so Stanley had the opportunity to frolic in the flowers.
Stanley visits the main church in the town - it's called the Martinikerk (kerk
means church, and Martini- is for St. Martin). This church was started
in the 1200s - it's the oldest church in Groningen!
Stanley hits up some of the shops and restaurants off the Grote Markt (meaning
large market). Notice how each of the buildings has a different shape
for a top. These shapes were used before buildings had numbers for
people to remember where they lived!
At this point, Stanley was getting pretty hungry, so I treated him to a stroopwaffel. A stroopwaffel is a very special Dutch dessert - it
has two very thin waffles with melted caramel in the middle. Very
yummy! In the background is a building that has gold on it. It was
built in 1635 and was used as the tax office - now it's a fancy
restaurant
Stanley stands in front of the ring canal, which goes all around the city in a
circle. Some of the boats behind him go sailing, others people live on!
Next, Stanley accompanied one of my friends for a short trip down south.... stay tuned!
