Hills and more!

After nearly three years of living in the Netherlands, we finally found what we’d been looking for – hills!! For our final escape to the country Mr T and I set off for a weekend in Maastricht. Maastricht lies in the very far south east of the Netherlands in the region of Limburg, a Dutch peninsular landlocked between Germany and Belgium.  We could hardly contain our excitement as we watched the altimeter on the sat nav reach the dizzy heights of 120 m above sea level. Mr T was nearly overcome with altitude sickness – where we live on the west coast we’re lucky if we get above sea level, let alone into double figures. Triple figures was a cause for a major celebration!

Mr T had selected a hotel which had received very good reviews on trip advisor.  Personally, my idea of a 9 out of 10 hotel is one that doesn’t involve standing naked in a shower waiting 10 minutes for the hot water to kick in. I would have had a bath if there had been a working plug.

I liked Maastricht a lot – the flavour of the town definitely felt more Belgian or even French, but then you turn a corner, and you know you're still in the Netherlands when you find a sculpture like this in the middle of a medieval square!

We took a boat trip down the River Maas which cuts through the city, and after that, we climbed a hill. From our view point at St Pieters Fort we watched some vertical archery. I’d seen Michael Portillo do this on one of his great continental train journeys. You know you’re turning into your parents when you find yourself watching programmes about train journeys, but this happened to be a journey he did in the Netherlands, and he visited the Hague and Haarlem - that's my excuse anyway.  The idea of vertical archery is that you aim at a shuttlecock perched on the top of a flagpole. Of course the major flaw in this game is that having aimed, and missed (or even hit the target) the arrow then descends, rapidly, to the ground. Apparently the arrows do have rubber ends, but even so.  Not the sport for me - and I apologise for cutting the top off the photograph - another case of turning into my mother. Trust me, there are shuttlecocks at the top of this pole!

After Maastricht we headed even further east to the tourist spot of Valkenburg. Valkenburg is the only place in the Netherlands to have a castle on a hill. The castle is now in ruins, but beneath the hill there is a maze of tunnels created by sandstone miners, and in December, Valkenburg is famous for the Christmas markets held in these caves. Personally I found the caves totally spooky; we took a guided tour with a Dutch boy scout (or at least he look liked a boy scout) who pointed out the various highlights, including an underground chapel and lots of etchings and sculptures, and recounted the gruesome tales of various people who had perished in the catacombs over the years (including some who became lost as recently as 1993).  I made sure we kept within touching distance of him at all time. It was a relief to reach fresh air!

I have in the past complained that the trouble with the Netherlands is that wherever you go it all looks the same. Well it doesn’t. I’m man enough to eat my words. There's a very small portion of it that is different (but it's a very small portion!).