Maastricht

This past weekend, I struck out away from Amsterdam on my own. Ok, not really on my own – my friend, Stewart went with me – but it was the first time I’ve traveled over here without the shelter of my program the whole time. It was actually Stewart’s idea to travel in the first place, and originally we had our sights set on Belgium. A lot of our other friends were interested in coming along, but this weekend was Volunteer Weekend, and they had already committed to helping out the locals. Volunteer Weekend was a chance for us to go out in the local community and get a real sense of what it’s like through volunteer work. There were lots of different places for us to choose from, including a petting farm, a soup kitchen, and a street festival near Funen.

Usually, I’m all about volunteering and working within the community (I sure didn’t spend twelve years in Girl Scouts for the campfire songs). But seeing new places is my priority while I’m abroad, and I knew that if I didn’t start venturing out soon, it would be easy for me to get comfortable and complacent hanging out in my own corner of the city instead of broadening my horizons like I’d planned. So I trusted my karma to years of volunteering past, and made plans with Stewart to go to Maastricht instead of Belgium (where we still plan to go when more of our friends can come along).

Maastricht is a city in the southernmost tip of The Netherlands, bordering Belgium to the west.

It’s a small city, but a beautiful one, with lots of cool medieval architecture and streets full of chic shops and lovely cafés. We took the train down from Amsterdam, which was an easy two-and-a-half hour trip, and spent most of Friday walking around town taking in the sights. The city center of Maastricht is the perfect size to get to know in a day. We wandered fairly aimlessly for the majority of the time, picking streets according to how interesting the architecture looked or how good the restaurants smelled.

We stopped for lunch at the Kaffee t’Perrepluke (The Umbrella Café), where the food looked good but not expensive. I got a baguette with ham and cheese, and Stewart ordered his new favorite Dutch dish: croquettes – or “seasoned mashed meat rolls in crusty jacket,” as our very-literally translated menu proclaimed.

There was a LOT of delicious food in the city, including the salmon quiche I had for dinner, the complimentary “bitterballen” we were served at the Café D’Artagnan (like croquettes, except ball-shaped with shredded chicken and a fancy sauce inside), and some of the most scrumptious waffles I have ever tasted.

When we weren’t wandering aimlessly or eating food, we also explored the local attractions. We spent awhile in Sint Servaaskerk (the Church of Saint Servatius), a beautiful 11th century cathedral with a museum of religious art inside.

On Saturday we ventured out of the city center to see the St. Pietersberg Caves, which are old man-made caves from the time of the Romans that you can take tours through.

The stone under the city is a very soft limestone that you can cut with only a knife.

People have been mining under there for hundreds of years, propping up the ceiling with cement pillars along the way, building ovens for their food and troughs for their horses’ food, and growing mushrooms from manure in the ideal conditions of the caves. Our tour guide took us through the caves, explaining all of these things to us in mostly-proper English. At one point, he let us experience the total darkness underground by running ahead with both the lanterns and letting us feel our way back towards him. The caves were definitely a good call.

After we were done with our tour, Stewart and I set off in search of a Pannekoekenhuis (pancake house) promising poffertjes (fluffy Dutch mini-pancakes) that we saw signs for on the way up to St. Pietersberg. The pannekoekenhuis in question was located on a mini-golf course. Or, as the sign said:

(The Dutch clearly do not share our view of political correctness.)

Anyway… At the Midgetgolf Pannekoekenhuis, Stewart and I proceeded to have the most Dutch lunch/dinner possible. We each had two croquettes served with a side of french fries and mayonnaise, followed by a dozen poffertjes each. It was second in deliciousness only to the chocolate-stuffed waffles, and it probably undid an entire day’s worth of walking in one go.

After our cave adventures and our sumptuous feast, we decided a quiet night was in order. Actually, a quiet night is really the only option one has in Maastricht, where the nightlife is more likely to encourage lingering over drinks at a café than going crazy at some club. We rested at the hotel for awhile, during which time I read about the city in a hotel guidebook. Fun fact: one of the rooms at the hotel is named after a man from Maastricht who went by Roeie Pierre (Red Pierre). Roeie Pierre’s claim to fame? Being drunk. Seriously. According to the guidebook, by the end of Roeie Pierre’s life there wasn’t a single bar in town where he was still allowed to purchase a drink, and his inebriated antics were notorious throughout the city. Stewart and I learned two things from this anecdote: 1.) the city of Maastricht is small enough to have a town drunk, and 2.) the city of Maastricht is easily impressed.

The rest of the night was quiet and fun, lounging in the cafés, people-watching, and so forth. We went to bed feeling like we’d seen all that Maastricht has to offer, and looking forward to a leisurely morning departure. On Sunday mornings pretty much everything in Maastricht is shut down, but we were lucky enough to find an open bakery where we got breakfast on our way to the train station. The train station was overwhelmingly full of activity, and after the ticket machine wouldn’t take either of our credit cards, we had to buy them at the desk instead. It’s probably a good thing we did that, because the woman there told us that the northbound train tracks were being worked on, so we would have to take the train to one stop and then switch to a bus to Utrecht, then get back on the train to go to Amsterdam. It was really hard for us to understand which stops we were supposed to transfer at, so the ride home was a little more stressful than it should have been. It also ended up being an hour longer than the ride down, but we finally made it back home.

Maastricht was a refreshing break from the noise and traffic of Amsterdam, and I had a lovely weekend there. If any of you ever have to chance to visit, I highly recommend that you do.