Introducing Mystery Class #5
Groningen, Netherlands ( 53.217 N, 6.550 E)

Hi, I'm Albert, you're Mystery Class #5 located in Groningen, The Netherlands.

I'm 16 years old and my school is called the "Praedinius Gymnasium". I'm in the fifth class (there are six classes, so next year I have my finals!). Gymnasium is the highest form of high school in the Netherlands. It compares to a (secondary) grammar school, according to my dictionary. It means that I also have Latin and Greek classes, in addition to the normal ones. This makes everything a bit harder, but also more fun in my opinion. I have different teachers for each class and I'm glad about that, because all the classes are different that way. I do have a mentor, Mrs. Suwijn, who also gives Biology. She's a very nice teacher, but a bit impatient at times.

I play badminton and the piano, I participate in drama/theatre and I deliver leaflets, so I have an intense week. I like listening to music (and making music) and reading books.

My City

I think Groningen is a beautiful city. It's not very well known outside the Netherlands, because there isn't anything very special to see here, but I think there's a lot to see if you look carefully. For example, we have a ring of canals, in which you can make trips with the cruise boat or even with a canoë. There's our city pride, the Martini Tower, a tower in the centre of our city. We also have our Groninger museum where some very interesting art is shown.

Groningen is a student city. Of our 180,000 citizens, 20,000 are students at our university alone! But I think the real beauty of Groningen lies in the things that are not very well known. Like the "Prinsenhof" near the centre. The "Prinsenhof" is a large garden, confined by parts of our old city-wall. You can't see it from the road and there's a small gate as an entrance. That's why not many know of it. But I think it's perhaps the most beautiful place in Groningen. There are roses, tulips, apple-trees and large hedges, under which you can walk. It's especially beautiful in spring and summer.

My Country

The Netherlands are famous for a few things in foreign countries, I believe. Tulips, cheese, wooden shoes and mills. Unfortunately you see less of these everyday (except the cheese maybe). Especially the old grainmills are doing not so well. Luckily some are national monuments now.

Here in the Netherlands, our national sport is soccer by far. No other sport is even 10 percent as popular as soccer (skating may come close). Our best soccerclubs are PSV, Feijenoord and Ajax. Groningen also has a soccerclub (FC Groningen), but they're doing very bad in the league at the moment. Our national team is also a national pride, and if they play an important game (like the World Cup or the European Cup final) certainly more than one third of the people in our country is watching it.

Perhaps it's hard to imagine, but in the Netherlands everyone has at least one bicycle. My country is pretty small, so many things are very near. It would be very expensive to drive by car all the time. A bike is great for short trips and it's healthy too. I went to Rome with my school last week and I was shocked by the fact that hardly anyone was riding a bike there. Everyone was driving cars or little scooters.

Politically, our country has been a mess for more than a year now. Last year, on the sixth of May, a political leader named Pim Fortuyn was murdered just before the elections. His party made a great win on the elections and got to reign with two other parties. But after only 87 days, this cabinet fell, mainly because of the many rows in the party of Pim Fortuyn, the LPF. And now new elections have taken place, but the parties find it hard to form a new cabinet.

I hope you have enjoyed learning about Groningen.

Sincerely,

Albert

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