We lef
t Paris in the morning, after I made one last visit to the local patisserie so we could have fresh croissants on the train. The train trip to Maastricht was uneventful but the scenery was nice. We passed by fields of bright yellow canola flowers, over flowing lakes, ruler straight canals and rotating windmills. We also passed through a number of Belgium cities including Brussels where we were excited to see the ‘Atom’ again from afar.
Our first impression of Maastricht was amazement at the number of bikes left outside the station. There were hundreds! Many of them had strange paint jobs or were decorated by fake flowers and bright bags so their owners could identify and retrieve the quickly.
Once we got over our amazement we found a map and started to head in the general direction we thought our hostel should be in. Whilst our packs were feeling much lighter tha
n they had been when we were traveling for 6 months, they began to feel pretty heavy after about half an hour and I was in desperate need of coffee. We found a lovely cobble stone square in front of a church and surrounded by cafes then quickly discovered the Dutch know how to make coffee, thank goodness! Once feeling revived we trundled off again to find the hostel. 
This was quite a pleasant walk as it was through the old town with lots of buildings on strange angles, and through some park land. We arrived at the hostel and were pleased to discover it was right on the water and it had a great decking area to enjoy a drink or two. We checked in, dumped our stuff then headed back to the church square hoping to get a bowl of Belgium fries. It turns out that in restaurants you cannot order a bowl of fries by themselves; they are a side that accompanies your meal. We still wanted fries so the waitress told us what meals came with fries and something gave away the fact that we were ‘not from around here’ so she suggested a
t Paris in the morning, after I made one last visit to the local patisserie so we could have fresh croissants on the train. The train trip to Maastricht was uneventful but the scenery was nice. We passed by fields of bright yellow canola flowers, over flowing lakes, ruler straight canals and rotating windmills. We also passed through a number of Belgium cities including Brussels where we were excited to see the ‘Atom’ again from afar. 
Our first impression of Maastricht was amazement at the number of bikes left outside the station. There were hundreds! Many of them had strange paint jobs or were decorated by fake flowers and bright bags so their owners could identify and retrieve the quickly. Once we got over our amazement we found a map and started to head in the general direction we thought our hostel should be in. Whilst our packs were feeling much lighter tha
n they had been when we were traveling for 6 months, they began to feel pretty heavy after about half an hour and I was in desperate need of coffee. We found a lovely cobble stone square in front of a church and surrounded by cafes then quickly discovered the Dutch know how to make coffee, thank goodness! Once feeling revived we trundled off again to find the hostel. 
This was quite a pleasant walk as it was through the old town with lots of buildings on strange angles, and through some park land. We arrived at the hostel and were pleased to discover it was right on the water and it had a great decking area to enjoy a drink or two. We checked in, dumped our stuff then headed back to the church square hoping to get a bowl of Belgium fries. It turns out that in restaurants you cannot order a bowl of fries by themselves; they are a side that accompanies your meal. We still wanted fries so the waitress told us what meals came with fries and something gave away the fact that we were ‘not from around here’ so she suggested a local dish. This turned out to be very similar to the contents of a beef and kidney pie, not bad. After a couple of beers, we went for another walk around town, enjoying the canals and the old buildings.
Our secon
d day in Maastricht started with a huge breakfast in the hostel. I didn’t think we would need to eat for hours, until I smelt the waffles! We hoed these down pretty quickly then regretted it almost instantly. This being done, it was time to get down to business. We wanted to do a river cruise which also included a tour of some of the caves in the region. These were the result of centuries of mining but were also used during the war time for discrete transport and shelter. It turns 
out that tour in English are only offered during peak season, so we saved ourselves some money. We filled in the rest of the day by walking to some park land, getting lost and finding a huge commercial mining pit, walking back the way we came and eventually finding the fort we had intended to visit, which was closed. It was however a pleasant day and it was really nice being somewhere by ourselves rather than constantly surrounded by hundreds of people li
ke in London and Paris. It was getting late so we headed back to the hostel to have a rest. We hit it off with one of our roommates, Amanda who is a Canadian traveling by herself. We ended up having a couple of beers with her then heading out for dinner. A nice way to end our time in Maastricht.
d day in Maastricht started with a huge breakfast in the hostel. I didn’t think we would need to eat for hours, until I smelt the waffles! We hoed these down pretty quickly then regretted it almost instantly. This being done, it was time to get down to business. We wanted to do a river cruise which also included a tour of some of the caves in the region. These were the result of centuries of mining but were also used during the war time for discrete transport and shelter. It turns 
out that tour in English are only offered during peak season, so we saved ourselves some money. We filled in the rest of the day by walking to some park land, getting lost and finding a huge commercial mining pit, walking back the way we came and eventually finding the fort we had intended to visit, which was closed. It was however a pleasant day and it was really nice being somewhere by ourselves rather than constantly surrounded by hundreds of people li
ke in London and Paris. It was getting late so we headed back to the hostel to have a rest. We hit it off with one of our roommates, Amanda who is a Canadian traveling by herself. We ended up having a couple of beers with her then heading out for dinner. A nice way to end our time in Maastricht.
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