Maastricht

As a sort of celebration of our tenth wedding anniversary, we had a lovely weekend in Maastricht in Holland.  It is only a two hour drive north of Luxembourg, but we still enjoyed the novelty of passing through three countries to get there.

We highly recommend the Cafe D’Artagnan on the Graan Markt. Although described to us as “just a pub” it was clearly more than this – excellent food, good prosecco and red wine by the glass and very accommodating staff. To start, I had a real French onion soup with very fresh bread and Ingrid had a trio of mini-soups. This was followed by a local specialty of a sweet and sour stewed beef. Very tasty.

After a lazy start to Saturday morning (our room had tea making facilities) we wandered into the old part of town looking for a coffee. It was minus six degrees with a biting breeze blowing off the river, so our wandering was rather purposeful. I was curious to visit the Selexyz bookshop which is housed in a deconsecrated thirteenth century Dominican church. It also had a coffee shop in the ex-chancel, hence the shape of the table. The conversion has its critics, but I was intrigued by the idea of the ultra-modern steel structure sited independently within the existing frescoed Gothic interior.

We successfully traversed the very icy Vrijthof square. Some cyclists didn’t. We tried to visit St John's church and climb its 70 m high distinctive red tower for its much touted view over town. It was closed. We then visited the Romanesque St Servaas Basilica and its treasury, as did Pope John Paul in 1985. At least it was warm inside.

  

Following the theme of our pilgrimages to the Schlosses of Bavaria and inspired by Chartres Cathedral, we are now on a bit of a quest to find labyrinths. To her delight, Ingrid discerned that the pattern of the tiles on the floor of the Royal Entrance to the basilica was in fact a labyrinth. Amazing.

  

After a light lunch in the (warm) Restaurant La Bonne Femme on the Graanmarkt, we traversed the Maas/Meuse River on the futuristic Hoge Bridge to the Ceramique district. This is a modern development of a whole suburb on the site of a vast defunct ceramics factory. The Bonnenfantenmuseum is an Aldo Rossi designed complex including a Jules Verne spaceship-like extension. A lot has been written about this design, but in the end, it is a modern building housing the city’s impressive collection of 16 to 18 th century paintings as well as several galleries of modern work.

On Sunday morning I had the great idea of having a coffee at one of the trendy cafes in the old warehouses around the former port, t’Bassin. Small problem, they were all closed. A snowfall overnight muffled what little noise there was in town as we found a café on the Markt square. As with elsewhere in Maastricht, this square was lined with those intriguing super-skinny houses seemingly huddled together for warmth.

We did a tour of the underground marl limestone quarries of St Pietersberg Hill. These were originally started in Roman times and supplied building stone until the 2nd World War. The result is a 200 km labyrinth of 20,000 galleries which extend under the Belgium border. It was very interesting, if a little  claustrophobic.

We heard them before we saw them, but it was still a bit of a shock – a resounding brass and drum band marching down a side street. It seemed particularly ironic to come across a highland band in a country which is situated mostly below sea level. As there appeared to be little worn under the kilts, one could almost hear the snare drums being accompanied by the knocking of knees.

  

Even hindered by the bitter cold, we found Maastricht to be delightful. We both look forward to returning in the springtime as there promises to be much rewarding exploring to be done.

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