Pieterpad: Valkenburg to Maastricht

Travel, Hiking, The Netherlands, , , , ,

July 10 – All good things must come to an end. Today is our last hiking day. 12.75 miles planned.

This sign in the stairway of our hotel summed up our Netherlands hiking experience. Not only is there never an elevator, each hotel assumes that because we are hikers we won’t mind walking up to the top floor!
Bye, Valkenburg!
Lots of suburbs to walk through
Finally, a dirt trail!
Blackberries for the picking
What a happy guy!
Off he goes!
A ranch emblem made of horseshoes
Good advice at the poultry farm
More potatoes
Limestone caves
Cows just love me
Heading into the suburbs before Maastricht, which go on a long way
The Dutch are so meticulous – have you ever seen such a perfectly trimmed weeping willow?
Approaching the city
Crossing the bridge over the river Meuse
Here we are!
Many people stop to offer a prayer to the Virgin here
Old architecture
Passing out the other side of the city on the way to Mt. St. Pieter
The old fort
Elevation! There’s Maastricht down below
Higher we climb
…and then…
Ta da! We are at the end of the Pieterpad! Another couple who had just completed took our picture.
Back to the city, we checked into Hotel Les Charmes, a delightful place where all the tables are made of old suitcases
The streets were super crowded this evening, and traffic was blocked to facilitate the free concert by hometown hero violinist André Rieu. We were told that he is the most famous violinist in the world.
Snaking through the crowd, we managed to find our restaurant. As a reward for a job well done, we treated ourselves to a spicy Singapore pho dinner, filled with seafood. Yum! We did it!

2 thoughts on “Pieterpad: Valkenburg to Maastricht”

  1. i have finally gotten caught up on your trip! it looked wonderful. I love how you capture the whole experience and share it. Whatever you are doing now must feel quite dull!

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