Category Archives: The Netherlands

Still in Valkenburg, Netherlands

The Netherlands, Travel, , ,

Oct 4 – I think this is the longest we’ve ever stayed in one town! As pretty as it is, we’re running out of things to see. We originally dismissed the idea of paying 15€ apiece to tour the ruins of the castle on the hill, as we could see most of it from the street. By today, however, that option was looking pretty interesting, so here we go!

The castle ruins viewed from the street
Now we’ll see them up close and personal!

I mentioned in a previous post that the original wooden castle only lasted for eight years in the 1100s. Stone versions were subsequently built up and knocked right down until the 1400s, when the ruins were allowed to remain ruins. Not much history to tell.

Part of a tile floor unearthed for us to see
Nice views of the town below – the metal weathervane depicts St. Servatius with his foot on the neck of a dragon
Close up of the St. Servatius weathervane
From this angle, you can imagine the bucolic view the original inhabitants saw
Castle selfie!

For the price of admission, we also got to tour the sandstone tunnels dug under the castle in about the 14th century.

A stonecutter removing bricks from the tunnel

The tunnels provided bricks for the rebuilding of the castle, and also provided a way for the castle inhabitants to escape unseen. Although the tour was only in Dutch, we enjoyed seeing the artwork carved into the soft stone.

Our tour guide illuminated the artwork with a flashlight
What the castle looked like in better days
A siege
This is the story of two brothers in love with the same princess. When she chose to marry one, the other one, of course, killed her.
Some fossilized shells in the sandstone
A jawbone of a prehistoric reptile was found in the sandstone. This is what the creature may have looked like! The actual jawbone was taken by the French, and is in a museum in Paris.
In September 1944, the Americans liberated Maastricht and Valkenburg from the Nazis, and used these tunnels.
The G.I.s left their signatures in the soft stone, and a local artist drew their silhouettes below.
Queen Julianna and her family

In the 18th century, a subterranean chapel was carved out of the sandstone.

St. Servatius, the patron saint of Maastricht, lived in the fourth century.
The carving above the altar

So, what do you think? As always, we learned something today, well worth the price of admission!

More from Valkenburg, Netherlands

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Oct 2 – Another perfect sunny day, and we must be feeling better, as our plan for the day is hiking. We were originally supposed to walk into Valkenburg from the Pieterpad, so our plan for today is to find that trail!

The red and white Pieterpad marker in town
The trail is nice and flat
Lots of horses
… and flowers
A mother is biking the trail with her adult son
There’s Valkenburg down below
Pretty farmland
Care for a large cup of tea?
We walked through a pretty park on our way back to town

A great day!

Valkenburg, Netherlands

The Netherlands, Travel, , ,

Sept 29 – So we are here in our cozy apartment. We walk out in the sunshine every day, and Jim has found a walking park and trail that is very pleasant. It has been pointed out to me that this is what other people do on vacation – it’s called r-e-l-a-x-i-n-g. What a concept!

A pony
Some sheep
Lots of ducks

The restaurants in town are busy, but so far we have been content with our little kitchen and Jim’s homemade soup.

A crowded shopping street with lots of cafés
Jim’s yummy potato and mushroom soup, and some odd Dutch pork and cheese sausages called “tree trunks”

There is an Indian motorcycle shop here:

The ruins of Valkenburg Castle sit atop the only hill in town. Originally built of wood in 1115 and destroyed in 1122, the sign tells us it was the only castle built on a hill in the whole country! Not many hills here…

The remains of the castle on the hill

Oct 1 – Are you ready for some real excitement? Today is the Valkenburg Goat Parade, which, if we understand things correctly, ushers in the first keg of bok beer of the new season.

Fake beards / real axes
Medieval finery
Military precision
Flugelhorns?

I was concerned about finding a good spot to watch the festivities, but no worries – the five marching bands went up one street and down the next, and we had plenty of opportunities to see them. But where were the goats? And where was the beer?

Here is a plaque in the main square, apologizing for the hundreds of “goat riders” subjected to torture and execution in the 1700s. These were marauders who were believed to have consorted with the devil, enabling them to ride across the sky on flying goats. We did not see any goats today, flying or otherwise. Nor any beer. Oh well!

Would you like to see some more wall art? Valkenburg has plenty!

A good day!

Groesbeek to Valkenburg, Netherlands

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Sept 25 – This was to be our week of hiking on the Pieterpad – the Netherlands trail that starts in Pieterburen in the north, and extends to Mt. St. Pieter in the south. The weather is perfect – sunny, cool and breezy, with blue skies and zero rain in the forecast all week. Best laid plans…

View out the window of our B&B in Groesbeek

As Jim began to feel worse and tested positive, we asked Boris to drive past our hiking origin point, and take us right to our accommodation for the evening in Groesbeek. One look told us that if we couldn’t hike out from here, we were pretty well stuck – no traffic for hitchhiking, and definitely no public transit. Jim even looked for a taxi service, but there was none. We are only booked here for one night, and I knew I, for one, would not be ready to hike in the morning.

We talked about our options, and decided, with heavy hearts, to cancel our reservations along the trail for the next week. We asked Boris to come back tomorrow and drive us south to Valkenburg, where a quick online search found us a studio apartment with a kitchen, near a grocery store, so we can hunker down until we feel 100%. That’s our plan B.

This morning’s sunrise was pretty spectacular

Sept 26 – We both slept well in the absolute quiet of the countryside. Boris showed up right on time, and two hours later, we are in Valkenburg. One week of walking = two hours of driving. Thank you Boris – we literally could not have done this without you!

So now we are at the Marx Motel. Karl? Groucho? Who can say?

We have an efficiency apartment with a balcony and a kitchenette stocked with everything we should need. Here we can rest and recover.

The view from our balcony

Valkenburg is a pretty, tourist town. There are many things to see here, but we only walked the three minutes from our apartment to the excellent grocery store. We bought some chicken soup – sure to help us feel better!

They have plate collections here, just like ours!
Pretty flowers by the canal
They have wall art here
Interesting window displays
…and animals of all sorts

So here we’ll be for the next few days. We’ll check in when we have something to report!

A Day in Amsterdam

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Sept 21 – Yes, I know we said we were not doing the tourist thing, but we are feeling better today, and Jim found a museum we haven’t visited. So we took the hotel shuttle back to the airport (which is also the train and bus station) and hopped on a train to Amsterdam Centraal.

Amsterdam Centraal Train Station
…which includes a multi-tiered bicycle garage

Yes, there are canals everywhere in Amsterdam, lined with houseboats and water taxis. The Venice of the north.

Our goal is to see Our Lord in the Attic Museum, a Catholic Church built in the upper floors of a house. During the 1600s, all Roman Catholic, Jewish and other houses of worship were confiscated by the ruling Dutch Reformed Protestants. A wealthy Catholic merchant built a church upstairs in his attic so that he, his friends and family could continue to practice their faith. From the outside, it looks like just another house on the street.

The Dutch did not prevent other religions from practicing, they just outlawed the practice in public. The church was used until the mid 1800s, when the Basilica of St. Nicholas was built just down the road. It became a museum in 1883.

The lower floors of the house have been restored to reflect how the merchant’s family lived.

The kitchen
The blue Delft tiles had pictures of little angels
Much of the original porcelain was retrieved from the cesspit under the house
Paintings in the parlor cabinet

Then up the stairs to the church:

The narrow little church upstairs – the columns on either side of the altar look like marble, but are actually painted wood
The organ keyboard and stops
The organ pipes
A close up of God above the altar
The Mary chapel
I like the look on the old father’s face as he listens to his daughters natter over their sewing. There’s St. Nicholas above, putting money through the window to help with their dowries.

After exploring Our Lord in the Attic, it was just a hop and a skip to see the Basilica of St. Nicholas down the street.

A bigger altar
A bigger Mary chapel

Then we were back on the street. What else could we see?

A rubber ducky store
Lots of pastries
A lamp for Lexi!

You may notice that the houses are very narrow – at one point, real estate tax was based on the width of the building, so houses were built narrow and tall :

Narrow houses
Things Karen thinks are funny – wild pissing is not allowed
Best porta potty sign ever!
On the train back to Hoofddorp – tired, happy travelers

The Netherlands and Belgium

The Netherlands, Travel

Sept 18 – Who is ready for an adventure ? We are! Want to come along?

Today we packed up all our cares and woes into new backpacks that are so small that they actually qualify as carry-on luggage, and got on a big iron bird to Atlanta and then a 757 to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. For the first time, we did not have to show a boarding pass to get on the plane – the camera verified our faces, and we walked right on! All went according to schedule, and we arrived mid morning after a typical no-sleep-packed-like-sardines flight.

Schiphol Airport is a destination in itself, with supermarkets, art exhibits, showers and sleeping areas. Cheese, anyone?

We are here for several days at an airport hotel, just to recover from our jet lag. As we have visited Amsterdam several times before, we have no tourist plans here. Van Gogh? Rembrandt? Been there. Rijksmuseum? Anne Frank House? Done that. Sorry!

Sept 20 – After a fitful night’s sleep, we walked into the town of Hoofddorp to find a supermarket and have lunch. Throughout the Netherlands, you will see separate lanes for pedestrians (right), bicycles (left), and auto traffic (far left), as well as bus lanes, tram and train tracks (above).

This pedestrian walk meandered prettily among flower beds meant to attract butterflies and bees. Very nice!

Rudbeckia and Jim

There was even a little park with a pond and an anti-slavery monument.

“What happened is not over”

Tomorrow, we will take the train into the city!