South Holland: Maastricht

Jeff and Ellie, both a year above me at W&M, came to visit! Traveling around for their break, we took a lovely holiday down south to Limburg, the southernmost tip of Netherlands nuzzled in between Belguim and Germany. It's a really different part of the country - there is even some hilly altitude! Plus, the entire feel of Maastricht was very "pan-European" and very fashionable, not just the cute Dutch style that marks the north of the country.

Jeff and Moo Moo are excited to travel through
the Dutch countryside
It was a beautiful 2.5h train ride from Leiden

Pretty!

Maastricht is split down the middle by the beautiful Maas river, with the best parts of the city straddling both sides of its banks, connected by several beautiful foot bridges.

13th century Sint Servaasbrug foot bridge
over the Maas River

When we arrived, we learned that we happened to be in Maastricht during one of its busiest, most important weekends, the European Fine Art Foundation Show (TEFAF), a celebrated art exhibition. There are hundreds of little galleries all over artsy Maastricht, and they all opened their doors to show off this weekend to the poor masses like myself and for thousands of rich collecters. We popped in to a few to check out some really neat artwork - prints, paints, sculptures, furniture, you name it.

Art exhibit posters

We Couchsurfed with a girl named Zoe, a law student at the University of Maastricht. She showed us a great time, walking around the city when she had time and introducing us to other nice Couchsurfers in the area. Our favorite was Guilluime, who makes homemade ice cream flavors. He had over 20 flavors in his mini fridge on the one day we met him. Awesome. He also sported a secondhand chocolate fountain. Doubly awesome!

Walking down the Markt, Zoe's street, we meet
Mr. Minkelers, the man who invented the gas lantern and
Maastricht's beloved native son...
Any statue with an enormous flame is awesome

Couchsurfer Guilliume's fresh made ice cream!
Vanilla and kiwi

Saturday we wanted to explore more of the city and its surroundings, and we woke up to a gorgeous day, so we headed out to the countryside. Just 2km outside the city on top of the highest hills in the area sits Sint Pietersberg, an old Roman fort. Connected to the fort are the Northern Corridor system tunnels, an incredible network of thousands of underground caverns hollowed out in the hills for defense purposes built over a period of 2,000 years.

Jeff looking not so impressed with Stadsmuur,
the ancient city wall built by the Romans

Pretty moss on a walk through Limburg

Beautiful countryside and pasture

Spring approaching in the Netherlands = mud

St. Pietersberg Roman fortifications on a hill outside the city

Shoot some arrows!

Tunnels!

Top of the hill looking down at the city

We walked by this pretty church outside the city where
a wedding had just concluded, as evidenced by all the petals
scattered over the entranceway

church

graveyard

After our nature walk through the countryside to visit the tunnels and fortifications, we walked back into town to lounge out at a streetside cafe in the sun to oogle all the fancy locals.

Outdoor cafes

Jeff, Margaret & Ellie

space people live in Zuid Holland?

Finally, we met up with Zoe for coffee and she showed us around the city. My favorite sight she took us to was an old cathedral that has been converted into a hotel! It was absolutely beautiful and one of the most interesting things I saw in the city with it's old, traditional interior accented by really colorful, contemporary furniture and modern art. It was really cool, and we got the concierge to show us around the wine room and the courtyard where the monks used to meditate, now furnished with kooky outdoor furniture and giant art pieces.

PIE

Ellie & Margaret at the mod cathedral hotel

We ended our trip back singing Johnny Cash songs late into the night, even drawing the attention of a lovely Dutch train worker who joined in on a rousing rendition of "Ring of Fire" during our connection from Eindhoven. Usually I am terrified of the Dutch ticket-checkers, but she was so great! After singing with us, she didn't even ask to see our tickets, which was hilarious because we were scared when we first saw her in her navy uniform, but she just jumped right into the chorus with us - so great!

I really hope to go back to Maastricht. It was one of my favorite places I've been so far, and since it's in the Netherlands, it's easy to get to, and now I have new friends I can stay with there!