Day 92: Maastricht

Saturday, April 17, 2010: Maastricht, Netherlands

Maria and I woke up early Saturday morning for a quick breakfast at the hostel (actually just packing sandwiches to take with us on the train) and cup of coffee before heading up the hill to the bus stop across the road. We caught an early bus along with one of our roommates at the hostel who we had met the night before from Korea. She was headed to the train station as well for the next leg of her journey around Europe. We boarded the same train, but she decided to sit in first class, as that was where her ticket was for.

We were taking the trains back in the direction of Tilburg, but had made a plan to stop in Maastricht for the day to explore this city in the deep south of the Netherlands. I had heard that it was a nice place to go and visit, and it made sense to go now, as we were already down in that direction. Maria was excited too, as she would get to see yet another Dutch city!

We napped a bit on the train ride, which I think was just over an hour. We got off the train and breathed in the fresh, warm air of Maastricht! We went into the train station to check on the locker situation, as we were not about to carry our things around with us all day. It was a rather simple process, and we shared one small locker to stow our things for the day.

Exiting the train station, we found the big map and checked out where the VVV was. We headed in that direction, through an antique market and down the main road. We came to what we thought was the real VVV quickly and looked around for a few minutes. I decided to purchase a self-guided tour map of all the historical monuments and such in Maastricht. The guide offered two walking tours, one that was three hours and the other about an hour long. It had great information that told us all about the city and where to go to see things...and it was in English!!

We exited the VVV and decided to stop for lunch. We went next door to Subway and had a nice sandwich. Then we went to the McDonald's just down the road to get a stroopwafel Mcflurry! I had told Maria all about this delightful creation and she was anxious to try one for herself. We feasted on the Mcflurries as we headed down the road a bit further to the pedestrian bridge where we sat for a few minutes enjoying our Mcflurries. We were surprised when suddenly the boat started moving to accommodate a large boat that was going underneath. It really disturbed the cyclers!

We crossed the bridge and walked downhill into the main shopping area of Maastricht. We came to the second (and real) VVV and looked around for a bit. This was the starting point of our self-guided fortifications tour, so we went back outside and began.

I held the map/brochure and read aloud to Maria the information about all of the interesting things to see in Maastricht. The guide was great, as it gave us explicit directions as to where to turn and where to look. We walked alongside the water and saw some things, before turning to make a giant circle through the city.

We wandered through the streets, squares and parks, paying attention to the information in our guide and piecing it together with the sights. We walked along the old wall that used to enclose the city and even got to climb on top of it for a view from above. We saw some interesting sights as we walked along, including fighting ducks in the park, a Mystery Machine vehicle, and a quartet of older Dutch men singing together harmoniously. It was an eventful and really nice walk!

One of my favorite parts was when we got to go into a windmill that is used to make grain still. It is attached to a small bakery that sells delicious freshly-baked goods. It was quite something to see and we were excited to get to go through it! We also passed by Maastricht University, which was neat to see!

As we were close to finishing  our tour, we decided to sit for a bit and rest. We chose to go to the Chocolate Co., attaining our goal of going to all three! This one was quite cute as well, and we each ordered a cup of steamed milk and hotchocospoon. This time I had Latte Macchiatto...yummy!

Afterward, we wrapped up the fortifications tour on the Maastricht side. It had taken us nearly four hours! We had walked about 4 kilometers, according to the guide! But it was really nice, as the sun was shining and the weather was so great!

We walked back through town past all the shops and stopped in one, 'de Bijenkorf', a Dutch department store. I am researching this store (well the one located in Eindhoven) as part of my Organizational Development course at Tilburg. We are writing a lengthy paper on the change process that the company has recently implemented in the branches of this store in the Netherlands. It was nice to actually get  to go inside one and see what they sell! Its kind of similar to Dillards or Macy's for those of you reading this in the States :)


After our short shopping diversion, we headed across the bridge to Wyck, the former center of Maastricht. We decided to do the Wyck tour on the other side of the water. It was nice as well, and much shorter than the other tour (about 1 km in one and a half hours). We enjoyed the tour and taking pictures on the other side. Just before we left, we walked up on the large, new bridge in Maastricht that we had been eying all day from a distance. It gave a nice overview of the city.

We headed back to the train station where we retrieved our things and boarded the train to Weert (don't ask about the pronunciation ;). We were thrown off again be having to switch to a bus at Weert in order to get to Eindhoven, as there was construction on the line between the two stops. We arrived about 6PM back in Tilburg, glad to be home after another exhausting (but AWESOME!) trip.

We hung out and chilled that evening with my friend Daniel. We went to his place and made milkshakes with Ben and Jerry's icecream! Yummm :)

Maria was supposed to leave the following Monday to head back to the UK. However, due to the volcanic ash, she was unable to do so. She ended up booking a bus back to the UK, and stayed in Tilburg with me through Tuesday. On Sunday, we went with Mateja and Daniel to some of the museums in Tilburg, including the Textile Museum and the Natuur Museum. We enjoyed both (although the textile museum was a bit of a disappointment). We had a lot of fun at the Natuur museum interacting with the exhibits there and behaving like little children....as usual! We went for ice cream afterward in the center with Daniel and Mateja at Intermezzo....yum! 

Monday morning, Maria and I headed to City Centre to try out Mugs and Muffins, a new muffin, coffee and cupcake place in town. We each ordered a muffin (I had cinnamon sugar and Maria had white chocolate raspberry...stop drooling!!!) and enjoyed realzxing in the warm Tilburg weather.

In the afternoon, the girls and I all went down to city centre to the cinema to see the Disney movie, "How to Train a Dragon". We all thought it was cute, even though Maria ended up sleeping through a bit of it! On Tuesday, I had class, so Maria bummed around in my room most of the day and we met up with Daniel for a quick lunch. We said our goodbyes and she headed out via train later in the afternoon while I was back in class.

All in all, it was a really nice visit with a really nice friend! We enjoyed spending time together and getting to know one another better. Maria lives in the Atlanta area, so she will be able to get together with me some this summer as well!