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Fort Sint Pieter. You can see Pearce at the corner and the little blue dot lying down is Hendryx in the far right. He is officially a threenager.
Sunday we woke up and hopped on our first bus.We actually didn't have a plan for the day, we just figured we would go wherever the bus took us and call it an adventure. This is a new concept for Lucille since I typically have them on a schedule and so she the idea of just leaving without concrete plans is new. Because of this, she is always asking questions about where we are going and what we are doing. We've explained this is the fun of travel you don't always know where you are going or what you are doing. She has also seen how there are times that can be very stressful (like when we had to switch trains in 10 minutes). She seems to be taking it in stride an has really stepped up when we needed her to.
So after about 10 minutes on the bus we got off on the west side of Maastricht. It was a lovely affluent neighborhood with neighborhood shops and lots of green trees everywhere. We stopped and looked around trying to decide what to do next when we heard the sound of beating drums in the distance. That seemed promising so we headed towards the drums and I'm so happy we did because we ran right into a marching band. We followed them along and eventually stopped where a group of people was gathering.
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| The band was a mix of ages and genders |
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| "Whats going on Mama?!" |
I asked an older gentleman next to us what was happening and he said it was the feast day for Saint Servatius, who is a regional religious figure. And on further research I found he was one of the Ice Saints because his day of celebration happened in the part of spring where random snow storms were common. Sound familiar Coloradans? It is interesting to note that unlike other areas of the Netherlands, Maastricht is predominantly Catholic.
Basically, we had stumbled onto the beginning of the procession from one cathedral to another. A procession is a march by the people of the local churches that pay homage to the Saint and carry important relics of the church and in this case, some human remains. It was a really cool thing to witness, and it was very nice of the local resident to narrate the procession for us. The kids were absolutely mesmerized.
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| Beginning of the Procession |
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| In Awe |
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| Important relic |
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| Important Relic |
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| Priest of the Basilica |
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| The area Bishop |
After the possession we headed south towards a green space we saw on our map. The park had a series of winding trails that we followed through beautiful scenery headed towards the countryside. After passing some horses we ended up on a small road that led us to a ubiquitous pub. It seems in the Netherlands pubs are "sponsored " by a specific brand of beer with the most common one we saw called Brand. This pub was owned by the same family for multiple generations and the old woman running it was quite charming. It was here too that we had our first political discussion with the Netherlander. They are all very interested about what's happening in the United States right now and think Trump is a big idiot.
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| Just climbing some ancient Roman ruins |
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| All over this area are beautiful fields |
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| Wild and Three is Right! |
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| The beer stop |
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| The Beer |
After the quick beer break we headed further down the road and stopped at a gorgeous outdoor café called De Sjans for lunch. We timed it perfectly because a rain shower hit just 15 minutes later but we were well protected underneath an umbrella. Hendryx got a quick cat nap in as well. My food was a delicious traditional fish soup. Pearce thought was going to get a traditional hamburger, but instead got a Dutch hamburger which had breaded breadcrumbs on the outside and this traditional meat on the inside that I can only explain as being pulverized into mush. I think it's an acquired taste (Pearce - I have not yet acquired it).
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| Loving this time with my girlie |
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| And P love the snuggles |
We finally headed up the "mountain" after lunch and saw the Fort of Saint Peter. It started to drizzle again so we pulled out the kids rain suits and kept walking. In no time short it was sunny again. I believe you can go on a tour of the fort but we just walked around it as it was closed and then walked up the side of the hill which is basically the pasture that covers all of the miles of tunnels below. Again it was a lovely stroll and we were able to see the more recent mining activities in the area I don't work out. And then headed back down the other side of the mountain towards our house.
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| Checking out the Fort |
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| He finally got the boy to join us |
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| Having so much fun exploring |
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| A road less traveled |
That evening, we were going to get groceries to set up our upcoming week, but we ran into European sensibilities and all the grocery stores were closed for the evening already. So we hopped on the train for the short trip to Maastricht central station figuring there would be food around there that we could have for dinner. We walked down the street towards the river and ran into a great Italian pizzeria called Cucina. Like all the other restaurants we had been to, the staff were really friendly to our kids and went out of their way to accommodate them. The food was yummy too!
It was a great first weekend with a ton of walking and sightseeing. It was already off obvious how awesome the little city was!
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