If you look at a map of the Netherlands, you will see that the country is shaped roughly (very roughly) like a parallelogram. But if you look at the lower right-hand corner of this parallelogram you will see an oddly-shaped appendage dangling like a swollen tail down into a bit Read More …
The Maas, as it is called in Dutch and German (Meuse in French and English), is actually not a very busy river. I seem to have taken pictures of it mainly when something was going on, such as a barge passing through, but there were long periods when the river Read More …
A Botel, as the name implies, is a boat that is used as a hotel. In a place like Maastricht, which has a shortage of inexpensive hotel rooms, a Botel is a good way to provide additional accommodation on quite short notice and without any huge investment. Of course the Read More …
People in Maastricht sometimes refer to the Centre Céramique simply as “the public library” — which it is, but the building also includes exhibition rooms, two cafés, dozens of computer workplaces with free internet access, several soundproof rehearsal rooms for musicians, parts of the city archives and the European Journalism Read More …
Albert Heijn is said to be the largest food retailer in the Netherlands, with a market share of about 30 %. The have six Winkels in Maastricht alone. Winkels? Yes, Winkel is a cute Dutch word for shop or store (reminiscent of the English words twinkle, sprinkle, wrinkle or crinkle Read More …
In other parts of the Netherlands, the southern city of Maastricht does not have a reputation as a very good cycling city. Especially people from Groningen, in the far north of the country, are no doubt unimpressed when they come to Maastricht and find that the level of bicycle use Read More …
This historic windmill is at Knooppunt 5, the fifth node of the South Limburg cycling network. Though it is known as the Gronsveld Windmill, it is actually within the city limits of Maastricht, near the road (and cycle paths!) that lead south to the nearby town of Gronsveld. Construction of Read More …
Dinkel is a word I only knew in German until I visited the Bishop’s Mill in Maastricht. Dinkel is a special kind of grain, related to wheat, which in former times was quite common in Europe and is now considered something of a health food. Dinkel-bread is a dark bread Read More …
Sébastien Le Prestre, Marquis de Vauban (1633-1707), was a French military engineer and adviser to King Louis XIV. What Kilroy was to the twentieth century, Vauban was to the seventeenth. Wherever you went in Western Europe, Vauban had already been there and had designed, built, strengthened — or conquered — Read More …