Magical Maastricht!

I've been trying to get over to Maastricht for a long time, and today was finally my day! It was definitely worth the wait! Maastricht is beautiful! We parked over near the train station and took off to explore the city.There is always something going on in Maastricht. They have a different market just about every day of the week. One of the reasons I wanted to go today is because on Saturday...they have a flea market! They had lots of interesting things to see, and I am not one to turn down a bargain. When we were done checking out the flea market, we headed toward the main part of the city. We passed this lovely statute on the way to the bridge. This is the St. Servaasbrug. It's a beautiful stone bridge, and there is a platform on the side of it so you can stand there and watch the tour boats and swans go by. This is D.L. Vrouwe-basiliek (D.L. Church Lady). Quite frankly, I thought this one looked more like a stronghold than a church. I love the name, though. It makes me think of those old Saturday Night Live skits. There are lots of narrow, winding streets all over the city. Each street is full of great little shops, where you can find just about anything you can imagine. You can get everything from a fancy tea pot shaped like a wedding cake, to a dressy hat to wear to a garden party. They also had lots and lots of clothing stores. It's a shoppers dream!After wondering down the narrow streets, we came out at the market area and the Stadhuis. The Stadhuis is the Town Hall, and it is a very impressive building that dates back to the mid 1600's. All that exploring was making us pretty hungry, so we stopped for something to eat at the shops beside the Stadhuis. No, we didn't eat at McDonald's. (Although Brandon conned his Dad into buying him a milk shake after lunch.) We had delicious pizza and spaghetti bolognese at Pizzaria Napoli, a couple of doors down on the left. If you're in the area, I'd recommend this place for lunch! Not only was the food fantastic, but the staff was really friendly and they were a lot of fun to watch. After eating WAY too much, we were off exploring once again. There are interesting statutes and fountains all over the city. This church really caught my eye. Actually, it's two churches. The dark gray building on the left with the red tower is St. Janskerk. The golden one on the right is St. Servaas-Basiliek. St. Servatius Basilica was built on the grave of St. Servatius, a distant relative of Christ and John the Baptist. The original stone church was built there in 550. Throughout the years, it was destroyed by war, rebuilt, and expanded into the beautiful building that it is today. St. Jaanskerk is St. John's Church. It was named after John the Baptist, and the main part of the building was built around 1200. If you are wondering about the red color, The church was originally painted to protect the porous stones from weather damage. The Chapter Lords of St. Servatius, the builders of the church, used red paint for all of their belongings. It was sort of their trade mark. The paint got it's color from the iron ore it was made from. Although it is now painted with modern paint, they kept it's red color for historical reasons. When you enter the church, there is a little brown door on your right. (It's on the left of the main doors in this picture.) For a mere 1,50 euros, you can climb up to the top of the church tower. What they don't mention to you, is the fact that it is a tiny spiral stone staircase, and there are over 300 steps to reach the top. I should have suspected something when the man said, "Can you go to the top? You are young! Of course you can!" The view is worth the climb! It's amazing! As a bonus, the church bells on the Basilica chimed for us while we were admiring the sites. All of Maastricht was at our feet. Too soon, it was time to go back down. If you think a tiny spiral staircase is intimidating to climb up, just wait until you have to go back down it. We had a fantastic day exploring Maastricht. It's an amazing and magical city. I hope to return to it some day and see what other treats it has to offer. (And get some more pizza.)