Botel

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 …

Centre Céramique

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 …

Winkels

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 …

Vauban was here

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 …