15 March 2015
About Maastricht
Maastricht is a town that shares with Nijmegen as the oldest
city in Netherlands with respect to Human settlement. It is the birthplace of
European Union thanks to Maastricht treaty signed in 1992. It has huge number
of National Heritage sites (> 1600) second only to Amsterdam. The University
in Maastricht makes it more thriving town than other similar places in
Netherlands.
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| Maas river at Maastricht |
My journey
When I got down from railway station, I just followed the
crowd to St. Servaasbrug, a stone bridge constructed across Maas River.
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| St. Servaasbrug |
At information center, a lady at the counter happily
explained the places I can visit in the town. That was very helpful. And then I headed to Vrijthof square. A nice place to rest and relax, it was
surrounded by restaurants and bars. All of them were full!! A nice weather and
Saturday ensured that people were on the streets!
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| Church at Vrijthof |
What attracted me were the trees at Vrijthof. They looked
different.
At Vrijthof was Sint-Janskerk, a gothic church.
I went into the Basilica and spent some time enjoying the
interiors.
The main intension of my visit to Maastricht was to visit
caves. I walked a long way to Fort St. Pieter where the caves were located.
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| A street in Maastricht |
It is hard to see hills in Netherlands!! Maastricht is an
exception and Fort St. Pieter on top of a hill provides nice views.
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| View from the fort |
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| Fort St. Pieter |
About caves
These are manmade tunnels of limestone quarries. The
labyrinth of tunnels covers a length of about 200km!! It also connects to neighboring
Belgium. But today about 80km of the tunnel remains due to the collapse and
open pit mining.
The caves are very dark and it is very easy to get lost.
Only guided tours are available which lasts for an hour.
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| Map of the pathways in the cave |
Lot of paintings is seen in the caves which are made by
charcoal. These were drawn not by the quarry workers but the visitors in olden
times.
The tunnels also were used as hiding place during wars. The
reminiscent of those days can be seen in the form of kitchen.
Surprisingly Maastricht is less visited by International
tourists. Most visitors are from neighboring countries.
Labels: Abroad, caves, Church, fort, Maastricht, Netherlands, travel
