Arguably the oldest town in the Netherlands, Maastritcht was full of history. It was also the most bizarre experience I've ever had. It began in the late afternoon as we arrived after a long drive and decided to stop for a drink in a bar Lonely Planet had recommended. From there, the experience went slightly surreal.
Yannick and Necia do not like beer, this is an established fact. So when it turned out that the bar served only beer, we knew we were in for an interesting time. The barkeep would come up to your table, and instead of simply ordering, he would ask what you liked, sweet, fruity bitter etc, and the try and pair you with a beer you liked. All well and good in theory, but it didn't work so well for us. My beer tasted like old carpet, which surprisingly, Yannick found slightly less disgusting than his own rather fruity beer which I drank instead. Necia ended up with blueberry beer.
Things only got stranger as the rather eccentric bar owner gave us a bowl of peanuts and informed us (in a thick Dutch accent) we could either drop the shells on the floor, or put them in our pockets, but they weren't to go back in the bowl (why? I have no idea). Yannick braved the first one, which resulted in a whispered discussion from us of where the hell to place the offending shell. He settled on shoving it in Necias pocket.
Then we noticed that other bar patrons were in fact throwing them on the floor with reckless abandon! Cautiously (I felt like I was committing a cardinal sin!) and then with developing glee, we followed suit.
This strange story might stop right here, if it wasn't for Jack. A slightly eccentric (there seemed to be a certain character type frequenting the establishment) Dutch man who was extremely friendly and happy. Wandering by our table and stopping for a quick chat, he quickly discovered we were from New Zelaand and became extremely animated as apparently his cousin had moved to Lower Hutt in Wellington region! It still might have ended there if as he left he hadn't spontaneously decided to shake Yannick's hand, causing Yannick to knock his drink over in the process, spilling beer everywhere. Feeling horrendously like bumbling tourists we began to ineffectualy dab at the mess before Jack appeared with teatowls and a new beer for Yannick!
The awkwardness was punctuated as we bent down to wipe the floor by the bar man shouting "don't wipe the floor! It's antique!"
A moment later Jack invited us to sit up at the bar with him continuing his lovely local friendliness. We accepted and began a nice social conversation swinging our legs on the tall stools by the bar.
Jack was a rather singular individual, cheerful, sociable, and with some excellent English expressions. He told us to see the cathedral in Cologne if we got the chance as it was 'simply marvellous' and later mentioned having a 'jolly good time!' He also very kindly offered us his house if we couldn't find anywhere to stay. We did in fact find a campsite, but he was certainly a very geunine, funny and generous person to meet!
After finding our campsite, we headed into the city to see the sights. One of the most stand out things in this city is the red tower. St. John's cathedral, built in the 13th century out of red stone (though I feel this has been painted brighter to make it stand out more).
The Our lady Star of the Sea chapel was small and gorgeous. Lit only by candles, it made the rich garments of Mary and baby Jesus glow even more golden.
On our wanderings, we also came across part of the old city wall, it looked magical lit up at night. After consulting our map however, we realised that these were not the ramparts we were looking for.
The dramatic part of the wall we wanted to find seemed to have escaped us. Just before giving up. We asked a man on the street but he shook his head and said he didn't know. As we dejectedly walked away, he suddenly shouted excitedly after us "yes yes! I know! I know!" And he did know! We were able to navigate there successfully. By then however it was too dark for photos so we decided to return in the morning.
We also planned to get breakfast at Bisschopsmolen, a 7th century mill that still ground all of it's own flour for their bread. The bread was nice, but it was the running waterwheel out the back that made it truly standout for me! The mill had a long and interesting history, originally belonging to Godfrey of Bouillon, he sold it as well as his castle to finance his crusade. Upon his death he left it to the bishop which is where it got the name Bisschopsmolen. It was eventually confiscated by the French and sold, but after changing hands a number of times it made its way back into the hands of Maastritcht merchants before being sold and restored by the City.
One of the rather standout and enjoyable things we did in Maastritcht was an underground tour. Starting from the castle on the hill, the underground tunnels extend for 200 km including over theBelgian border and were mined for their limestone.
The tunnels had a long and interesting history, not just that of mining. In 1765 for example, the skull of a dinosaur was found. Called Mosasaurus it was among the first ever fossils recognised as such which was an important development as unlike the Bibles teaching of God's perfect creatures, here was one that was extinct, thus conflicting with the Bible. Although it was discovered here, our tour guide told us an amusing story of how when the French came and took the city in 1794, they decided they wanted to get their hands on it. The townspeople hid the skull, however the French offered two hundred bottles of wine to anyone who would tell them where it was, and they cracked. To this day if remains in France, the Dutch claiming it was stolen, the French adamant they bought it fair and square in exchange for the wine!
People also hid in these tunnels during a second attack from the French by Napolean. Unfortunately the French soldiers found the tunnels, and then attempted to blow up part of the tunnel where they thought the fortified castle was! Luckily, their dynamite only blasted the tunnel into a huge cavern but didn't break through the roof. The tour guide smugly told us that even if they had, they had miscalculated and missed the castle by a few meters anyway! Overall it was a rather enjoyable tour (and usually I am not one for tours).
Overall it was a beautiful town.
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