Europe Trip - Day Four (Maastricht)

Hallo again! Keeping the European Christmas vacation blog series rolling, we have now reached Day Four. After the Christmas night craziness, we planned a day trip to Maastricht. Maastricht is located far south in the Netherlands, approximately an hour and a half drive from Megan and Todd's home in Eindhoven. Our first stop once we arrived was Grotten Sint-Pietersberg. The grotten actually refers to a network of man-made tunnels and caves that have been carved out over time through the limestone. We started our day in Maastricht with a guided tour of the caves. The network of caves is incredibly long and has a few interesting spots along the tour. For example, there are plenty of charcoal drawings through the tour that have been created through the course of hundreds of years. You can see photos of a few of them below. Also, the Netherlands hid some of its best works of art down in the caves during World War II. At certain points in the tour, there are large concrete structures that look like something from a sci-fi movie. These were guarded by armed guards when the paintings were being stored down there. Further, some of the rooms are even climate-controlled to preserve the artworks. The last picture below shows the entirety of the cave network. It runs underneath many parts of the city, and we only toured a very small fraction of it.

After finishing our cave experience, we drove to the center of the city to explore some of the sights. As you have already heard, Christmas markets seem to be extremely popular in this part of Europe. So, the first square in Maastricht was full of street vendors and carnival rides. We ate some street food, including lumpias (sort of like fried spring rolls) and frites. The fries come in a newspaper cone with various sauces available. This time around, we tried the Andalouse sauce, which was basically a spicy mayo. The fries are always made to order, extremely hot, and crispy. Easily one of the food highlights of our trip.

After filling up on fried food, the four of us embarked on a walking tour of the city that Megan and Todd had purchased in a prior visit to Maastricht. Like much of our trip, it was overcast with sporadic rain. But, it didn't deter us. We completed the walking tour anyway. Maastricht claims to be oldest city in the Netherlands, and you can certainly see why during a walking tour. One moment, you are on a street lined with clothing stores, and the next, you are walking through a cobblestone street with the old city wall right next to you. One of the coolest sights on the tour is the Helpoort.

The Helpoort is the city's old gate, which dates back to the 13th century. You can see it pictured to the right. This entire area of the city is filled with remnants of the old city. At one point during the walk, it started raining pretty steadily, so we found a little cafe on one of the squares. C had a delicious, yet little, hot chocolate, and I had the Kasteel tripel. The Kasteel glass is one of the best. The beer is a good tripel. It's approximately 11% ABV, and tastes a bit boozy. The Kasteel tripel is very spicy and has the classic Belgian taste of clove and candy sugar. It's not the pinnacle of Belgian tripels (the balance is a bit off) but good nonetheless.

The walking tour ended in Vrijthof, the most well-known square in the city. The large red church tower is especially easy to spot and stands out among the gothic buildings along the square. Here are some of my favorite photos from the walking tour.

After a day sightseeing, Megan had made reservations for us at an Indonesian restaurant across the river in Maastricht. There are Indonesian restaurants all over the Netherlands. Prior to World War II, Indonesian was known as the Dutch East Indies and was a Dutch colony for over a hundred years. So there is a long history of Indonesian culture in the Netherlands. The restaurant was nice and offered an array of Indonesian food for the four us. None of us had ever been to an Indonesian restaurant before. We ordered a variety of different items, including various rice dishes, salads,and satays. We had pork, lamb, chicken, beef, tofu and shrimp. The spices were bold but not overly spicy. I especially enjoyed the peanut sauces. Also, I tried a Palm Speciale. This beer was probably the most prevalent beer on tap at every cafe/restaurant throughout Belgium. I decided to give it a try. It is a Belgian amber from the Palm brewery. Clearly, it is meant to be an easy drinking beer for the masses. I certainly would not say it is terrible, but it does not offer anything original or exceptional. I actually think it has some similarities to Fat Tire, which I don't particularly enjoy. But, I can see Palm Speciale being a decent with a sandwich or in this case, Indonesian food. The dinner was great. Absolutely, no complaints, and a great way to end our long day in Maastricht. The city is one of my favorites and flies under the radar with tourists outside the Netherlands. Both C and I would highly recommend a visit to Maastricht.