EU Trip Days 24, 25, 26 Maastricht, Netherlands

Celebrating Pammie's 60th Birthday

It's great being able to kick start Pammie's 60th birthday celebrations with a three night visit to Pam & Pat's boat moored at a marina in Maastricht in the Netherlands. Her actual birth day is the 23rd but we'll be almost heading home to Australia by then, so an early visit is better than none at all.

Having found on arrival that the alleged 900 metres twixt hotel and railway station were wishful thinking, we chose to take a taxi to the train station: our luggage seems to be getting heavier and heavier (especially following a visit to a cheap knick knack shop which, amongst other gems, provided us with LED pineapple lights and a carrot sharpener). We had to change trains at Liege on the way to Maastricht and we managed this with no trouble even though there was only a short break between trains arriving and departing. We'd allowed ourselves some margin for error (in case we missed the connection) so we were already waiting at the station when Pat and Pammie arrived.

We took a taxi back to the marina where we had lunch and caught up with Pam and Pat's news, as well as being shown around their new boat "La Belle Vie". It's indeed a beauty! John and I have the forward bunks and Pam & Pat have the back cabin. In between is a good size saloon, kitchen and dining area. We ate up on the back deck which is partly shaded by a bimini. The view of the canal and surrounding marina from here was so peaceful and quiet. There are many water birds here, all with their chicks in tow. Ducks geese, swans, moorhens .... that's a lot of quacking.

After lunch we caught another taxi in to the city to have a look at the old gates and city walls. Our taxi driver rejoiced under the name Lars. (I couldn't stop thinking of the film Lars and the Real Girl, which was both unkind of me and unprovoked!).  He and his dad run a family taxi service and dress in suits and have BMWs or other luxury vehicles, yet charge the same price as normal cabs. Needless to say we gave Lars a lot of business during our stay.

Maastricht is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands. Because of its position on a peninsular bordering between Belgium and Germany and its strategic position on the river Maas, it was fought over by its neighbours and the French for many years. Hence the big walls and big gates. We took some time walking up to the top of the wall to view the park and fountain before entering through the gates.

Pammie had read about a very old flour mill that was still grinding its own flour and serving breads and cakes in a small café attached. We went for a look and to sample their wares. Delicious apple pie I have to say.

We walked to the square where Pam and Pat had attended an Andre Rieu concert the first time they were here a few years ago.  It was being set up for a graduation ceremony while we were there, so we walked around to have a look at the two cathedrals beyond the square.

Maastricht is a very beautiful old city and has lots of lovely architecture and outdoor cafes. We loved seeing so many people outdoors enjoying the sunshine sitting under umbrellas or espaliered plane trees for shade. Practically everyone rides bicycles here. They're everywhere you look and people of all ages ride them. Bikes have right of way, so motor vehicles have to take great care not to hit them. No-one seems to wear a helmet either so they obviously feel quite safe.

We wandered down to the river and crossed over the bridge, watching canal barges travelling down the river beneath us. We found ourselves back outside the railway station where we'd arrived, so caught the same taxi back to the marina. We went back to the boat and were sitting on the back deck for sun-downers before dinner when a lady's head popped up over the rail.  She invited us over to their boat to share happy hour drinks with her husband and another couple Pam and Pat had met on the water taxi earlier.

The next day we took the water taxi into town to have lunch at the restaurant where Pammie and Pat had enjoyed dinner on the night of the Andre Rieu concert. Andre has a home in Maastricht which we can see from the boat, which is why he does annual concerts here. Before lunch we did some shopping and had coffee in an old building that has been converted to a bookstore and café.

We wanted to have a look around one of the old churches we'd seen. There is an altar with many candles in front of a statue of the Madonna and Christ. Both Pam and Pat lit candles in honour of their former husband and wife who were lost to cancer some years ago.

Lunch was a lovely relaxed affair and we had to drag ourselves away to return to the market square before the stalls closed to purchase some fresh produce for our dinner tonight. The cheeses were amazing and we selected some with cumin and some with truffle. At the fruit and vegetable stall we found some white asparagus which Pat wanted to serve us tonight with a white sauce. We also grabbed a couple of kilos of the tastiest juiciest apricots I've every eaten. Pat was in heaven. Being an ex fruit grower he loves his stone fruit. The berries and strawberries were also too good to pass. I don't think we'll starve.

Barb had managed to find some party hats and paraphernalia to supplement things she'd bought in Saffron Walden. She set John to work blowing up balloons and stringing bunting and the pineapple fairy lights from Bruges so that when Pamela came back from the shower block she was surprised to see the boat looking very festive and an early birthday celebration ensued. Pat cooked a chook beautifully on his new Weber and it went down a treat with the white asparagus in white sauce washed down with champagne. Afterwards a game of Rummicub while we watched the sun set. What could be more perfect.

For our last full day in Maastricht Pam had bought tickets for the old fort, and the tunnels and caves near the fort. This turned out to be a fantastic day.

While we were waiting for the tour to start we had coffee and apricot pie at the café. We were all in raptures over the apricot pie, so much so we also snaffelled the last piece of the pie to share between us. Our tour guide was a lovely post grad Polish girl called Justina who spoke very good English and was very knowledgeable about local history. She made the tour of the fort and the caves extremely interesting and she was excited to answer all our questions. Pam and Pat even got to have a turn at carving out limestone using a metal saw as villagers used to do, to mine their limestone building blocks, the mining which gave rise to the caves themselves - they are not natural. Underground quarry would be a better description.

The tunnels are very extensive. There are hundreds of kilometres of tunnels beneath the hills, extending into Belgium as well. These tunnels were used during the war to hide in and to spirit Jewish people over the border to safety as well as to protect their precious artwork in specially constructed vaults.

All of us really loved this tour and considered it a highlight of the trip. In fact the whole stay with Pamela and Pat was absolutely wonderful and we enjoyed it immensely. We both felt very relaxed and welcome. We are sad to leave but glad we came.

Lars picked us up to drop us to the train station on our last morning. Oh how wise we were to have allowed room for error, as we missed our connection at Liege due to some holdup with our train. There were armed soldiers on the platform looking very serious and watchful at Liege. We didn't know if there was some problem (they weren't there when we went through a few days ago). Anyway we got to Brussels without incident. We still managed to make our Eurostar connection despite going to the wrong station in Brussels (blame me for that) and having to take an extra train trip to get to the right one. Then when we got to Liverpool St Station in London our train to Cambridge was cancelled and we had to catch a later one. Oh well. Six train trips in one day isn't bad. At least we got home safely!