The Dutch Double A

Welcome to an enormous day! We spent the day in the area around Maastricht, with a couple of extra trips.

You can see a grand total of three photo galleries on Flickr:

Maastricht: https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645794553499/
Château Neercanne: https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157646272758963/
Valkenburg: https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157646273390593/

After yet another bleak morning, it fined up considerably and we headed off to Maastricht. There are 'park and walk' facilities in Maastricht, but you have to pay for parking. Weirdly, the payments are billed in 1 Euro denominations, but in increments of 43 minutes, so 87 minutes costs considerably more than 85 minutes, but costs the same as 120 minutes.

We walked into the main 'old town' area of Maastricht, and stood there rather unimpressed. Part of that was I think due to the fact that we had seen so many old towns recently that Maastricht was just a little bit 'meh'. There was a big empty square, surrounded by pubs and restarurants, with a few churches on one side. Very concrete jungle.

We wandered around the outside of the churches for a while, and took some photos whenever some blue sky popped out from between the clouds. There was also an enormous, sombreing memorial for MH17 victims:

Churches of Maastricht

We then headed deeper into old town, where we came across many strange sights that we hadn't seen before. The old town had much more bustle about it than other old towns, and was full of locals rather than tourists. There were a couple of interesting buildings, but it was mostly things we had seen before. It was still quite pretty though:

Old town Maastricht

After heading back to the car, we made our way to Château Neercanne. The chateau is about 15 minutes out of Maastricht, and is a Michelin-star restaurant on the grounds of a magnificent old chateau. There was PLENTY of parking here, and we walked a short way to the chateau (passing several other closer parking spaces, sigh) and had a look around. The gardens below the body and walls of the chateau were absolutely beautiful:

Château Neercanne

On the way back dad stopped to talk to a guy with a metal detector in a field, who turned out to be hunting for Roman coins and the like. We also saw two little brats ripping the fruits of the vines at the chateau and chucking them at the fountain below. Dad sent the chateau an email afterwards, but we didn't do anything at the time, lest the beautiful grounds be closed to visitors because of such a thing. Little mongrels!

We moved on from the chateau towards Valkenburg aan de Geul, which had been recommended to us by dad's friends from Amsterdam. They weren't wrong! We rocked up to a parking place, where a local kindly gave us an all-day ticket she had bought, which she no longer had any use for. So we got free parking.

We knew there was an old castle and a ruined castle in the area, so we started walking. We eventually, by accident, stumbled on the grounds of Kasteel Oost, which is the old castle. The grounds were absolutely beautiful, and we later found out walking around the other side that it is the current host of the International Butler Academy, the 'finest of it's kind in the world':

Kasteel Oost - just beautiful!

We did some more walking to come across the ruined castle, which literally sits on a hill smack in the centre of town. Unfortunately it closes at 5:30, a full 90 minutes before we got there, which in my opinion is just silly in the middle of summer, when the sun doesn't even set until 9:30. Disappointed, we headed back into the centre of town. Not before taking some pictures though:

Ruined castle in Valkenburg

The centre of town was quite busy and full of tourists - yet another place on our trip that was no doubt quiet 20 years ago before the advent of the internet. We raced back to the car, seeing an approaching storm. We literally just left when it started raining. And it wasn't rain. Well it was, but it went from completely dry to uber-rain in an instant. We could barely see where we were going, and several drivers had pulled over.

Eventually the rain stopped, and we made it back to the hotel. For dinner, we headed back out to the pizzeria from our first night in Kerkrade, but this time ordering one large pizza between the two of us, rather than two large pizzas. We returned to the gelato place as well - at 9:30 instead of 11:30 my German was much more functional.

So as you can tell, today was an enormous day! Tomorrow we will drive up to Amsterdam and meet dad's friends. We'll stay there until Sunday, and on Thursday mum will arrive for the start of her trip! Don't expect anything as enormous as my blogs, but you'll find hers here:

http://fabeurope2014.blogspot.com.au/

See you in Amsterdam!

Half of the Double As

Today was our first of two days in the south of Holland, near both Aachen and Maastricht. As planned, today we would visit Aachen.

My Aachen gallery is now on Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157646185089921/

After our buffet breakfast, courtesy of the hotel, we waited for a thunderstorm to pass before heading out. We were sort of aware that there was a second system moving in, but we went anyway. It was only about a 15-minute drive to the car park, where you can park for free outside the city centre. Rather than getting the bus, we walked into the city centre. Unfortunately a little way in it started to rain, so we hung under a closed storefront for a while while the rain passed through.

Eventually we found ourselves in the city centre, near Aachen's Rathaus (City Hall). Most German cities have one, but this was much bigger and more extravagant than other German cities, even though the city itself is smaller. On the opposite side of the Rathaus, there's a square which is sandwiched between the Rathaus and Aachen's main cathedral.

The lighting was pretty bad for taking photos, and as it started to rain we headed into the cathedral (Aachener Dom). There was a notice outside asking every 1/3 people to donate €1 to raise money to maintain the cathedral. 1 Euro also happened to be the amount you were required to pay before taking photos, for which your camera has a white tape wrapped around it. I counted 1/3 people with a camera, which would pay for the maintenance. I counted 1/10 of said photographers with white tape. Very sad that people are so stingy that they won't even pay €1.

Anyways, the church was really lovely and here are some of the photos:

Cathedral interior

The weather had deteriorated slightly when we exited, but improved after that, to the extent where it became a beautiful afternoon with blue sky. I immediately took the chance to take new photos of the Rathaus and Cathedral, this time with blue sky as the backdrop:

Blue sky - much better!

There also happened to be a bike race around the cathedral, so we got to watch expensive bikes racing around cobbled streets at 50 clicks. I wondered how many of those bikes would be shot by the end of the race:

Bike race at the Dom

Spectactors were being led across the track at intervals by members of the fire cadets - the fate of 50 speeding riders rested in the hands of 13- and 14-year-old kids. How comforting for them.

Some of my other favourites from today:

Today's other favourites

We eventually headed back to the car, not stopping this time, instead admiring the afternoon sun. After heading back to the hotel, we headed out to a Gasthaus in nearby Germany. The amount of food they served for €10 was absolutely ridiculous - we ended up not even being able to manage a single scrap from the complimentary salad buffet.

See everyone tomorrow, when we will go to the second half of the double As - Maastricht.