Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
If it’s Thursday, it must be Holland! There used to be a saying like that about the
kind of whirlwind coach trips Americans take in Europe, including the one I
took with my family in 1985 that sometimes involved being in a country for only
one day. I’m actually doing that on this trip with one day in Holland and one day
in Germany. The places I’m going to are all so close to each other that it
makes sense, though.
On the map Maastricht actually looks like it ought to be in
Belgium, part of a little sliver of the southeastern part of the country that
hangs south from the rest. Maastricht is the capital of the Dutch province of
Limburg and arguably of the larger Limburg region which includes Belgium’s
Limburg province and a small adjacent part of Germany, divided by national
borders but united by a common history and the Limburgish dialect that sounds
like a mix of Dutch/Flemish and German. Some call it the Limburg Nation.
Maastricht is a university town with about 120,000
population along the Maas River, the same river that’s called the Meuse about
20 miles upstream in French-speaking Liege.
It’s the oldest significant city in
the Low Countries with some of the oldest churches, mostly Romanesque in style
like many in the Rhineland rather than Gothic. In modern times the city gave
its name to a European Union treaty in the early 1990s which defined terms of
membership and had to be ratified by member countries.
To me Maastricht is famous, though, for Andre Rieu, the
native musician with an orchestra behind him who popularized classical music
over the last twenty years. My parents used to watch his show religiously about
10 to 15 years ago, and he regularly performed major concerts on the Vrijthof,
a huge square beside the Romanesque Sint-Servatius Basilica. I know some classical
music snobs who look down their noses at Rieu and his style, but I think he’s
great if he can get more people interested in classical music rather than so
much modern noise.
I’ve been in Maastricht once before back in 2003 on a
daytrip from Liege, probably shortly before I heard about Rieu. I hadn’t
planned it, but it happened to be November 11th, known as Armistice
Day or Veterans Day in the English-speaking world but also Saint Martin’s Day
in the Netherlands, a kind of semi-official start to the carnival season. And quite
the party it was, with people dressed in costumes, stages set up in different
squares around town with bands performing, marching bands and costumed troupes
wandering through town, and overall merriment and mayhem. I loved it and left
with a very positive impression of Maastricht.
So I was eager to return, but my Thursday in Maastricht was
far more subdued. The city center is just as beautiful on a warm, sunny summer
day, its multiple squares filled with seating of outdoor cafes that line them,
its city walls and Romanesque churches just as impressive. On the other hand,
it’s another small city like many I’ve seen in Belgium and the Netherlands over
the last two years and not the scene of the great merriment I experienced my
first time in town. That was yesterday in Liege instead this time around.
2025-05-22