Four days of typical Dutch: 3: Groningen en Drenthe.

Hanging kitchens of Appingedam

Dwingeloo to Zuidlaren, November 8, 2017—

AFTER YESTERDAY'S relatively quiet day this was a busy one, with two museums, a walkabout, and an odd B&B at the end of the day. And, in between, naturally, eating.

We drove first to Gieten, to stop for coffee at a bakery particularly recommended by our Dutch guides. The Netherlands knows two kinds of bakery: broodbakkerijen, where you go for your various loaves of bread, and banketbakkerijen, where the really tasty items are. This bakery, long a favorite establishment for miles around, performs both functions.

Here we had coffee and applecake, of course; but we also bought things for the trip — delicious crisp speculaas wafers; fine dense pastries involving speculaas wrapped around marzipan. I've been to a number of Dutch bakeries; I can see why this one is special.

Founding couple, Bakkerij Job

•Bakkerij Job, Stationsstraat 22A, Gieten; 📞+31 592 26 06 56

Then we drove on, farther north in Netherlands than we have ever been, to the fine old port city Appingedam. Here we had our walkabout, to see the famous "hanging kitchens" on canal houses, and to visit the fascinating Stad Museum.

We drove out into the country to visit a marvelous landhuis — I suppose "manor house" would be the equivalent, but it seemed quite palatial to me, including even a "trouwkamer" seating over forty in which the local count would preside over local weddings.

Here, too, in a former stables-plus-carriage house, there's a comfortable bruincafe-type bar-and-lunchroom, and here we had a delicious ham-kaas tosti with fries and, of course, a local beer.

•Museum Landgoed Fraeylemaborg, Hoofdweg 30 Slochteren; 📞+31 598 42 15 68

And then it was time to turn southwards toward the night's hotel, a B&B-type stop in the middle of Zuidlaren. The approach to the place was odd: my iPhone's Waze took us down a narrow drive into what looked like an empty field next to a pond. It turned out to be our parking lot, and we checked into a comfortable room.

Where to eat? Most places were closed for the season, but we found a modest place on our street, and here we feasted very traditionally indeed, on worst en boerenkool, sausage and mashed potatoes with kale.

•Cafe de Paris, ? 6 de Millystraat, Zuidlaren

Note the question mark: This place seems to have more than one name. I think this is the address.