Maastricht treat
This coming Monday is Whitmonday, (yet another) public holiday in the Netherlands. The Sunday's called Whitsun and together they form 'Pinksteren' (Whitsuntide, also known as Pentacost) a holiday that I've noticed is not very well known among my English speaking friends. That's OK, because sadly some 50% of Dutch people have no idea what Pinksteren stands for either, other than it being the last public holiday before Christmas. Look it up, people. Disciples, Holy Spirit, fire, speaking in tongues. It's oodles of fun. What were they smoking, eh?
I've been having lots of problems with RSI and need to get away from behind the computer. So I've got it in my head to make use of this break to go to the city of Maastricht in the province of Limburg, two and a half hours south of where I live. It's almost like going abroad for a Hollander like myself. Maybe I'll even stay overnight.
There's no grand plan other than 'rent a bicycle, chill' and hopefully take enough pictures to keep my photolog filled for a while.
I'm also considering going Interrailing this summer - something you're supposed to do when you're 18-26, I think, but what the hell.
what a lovely place! have fun. Will you be totally off-line? I can't really imagine it...
Interrailing, Intershmailing -- come to New York this summer! It's the thing to do! Mr and Mrs HG are staying a mere six blocks away from me during their trip here, I kid you not. And as I've said before, you're more than welcome to stay with me.
And I would come down to NYC to see you...
I checked flights to New York quickly and prices are v. high in that period (August 2 - 13).
Anyway, m'off to the South now, back on Monday.
>Limburg
cheese?
I think Interrail has been superseded by Easyjet/RyanAir/Air Berlin/etc...
True. But train travel has a different appeal. Travelling itself becomes part of the holiday - flying's just a means to get somewhere quickly.
One of my best memories from being in Europe, is crossing France by train.
Somewhere just outside of Nice, the people in the car next to mine had the door open and were playing an acoustic guitar, singing french and spanish folk music. Very happy the only plane I took was from Gatwick to Paris.
Once upon a time myself and a friend took a cheap ticket train journey to Maastricht. We'd been told they had the treaty engraved on two giant plaques in the town square.
When we got there, we wandered about for a while, until we realised we were hungry. In order to find somewhere we wanted to eat, we picked two young ladies, who looked like the kind of people we'd like to eat beside, and followed them discreetly until they led us to an eatery.
It was very nice.
Then we went back to the train station, only to be told that the last train to Koln left at 8, an hour previous to our query.
In the end we spent the night in a small unlocked shed set up for a food festival on a bridge over the river. It had light and kept out the wind.
But it was very cold.