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Tag Archives: Maastricht

Netherlands – Maastricht – cobbled streets, Christmas lights and a bookstore inside a church.

03 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by RuthsArc in days out, remembering / musing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

architecture, holiday, Maastricht, Netherlands, photos

After our days as tourists in Amsterdam, we headed south. It was a novelty for us UK folk to travel on a double decker train, with great views from the upstairs carriage.

We have been visiting Maastricht for many years as an Aussie relative married and settled there. So as well as the usual family catch up, chatting over leisurely meals, coffees and wine, we did get out and about. We enjoyed delicious meals in small restaurants and savoured new wines in an original wine bar where price was the same per glass or per bottle, no matter what wine you chose.

Maastricht is a beautiful old city, in the Netherlands but in a hilly region close to the borders of Belgium and Germany. The Euro currency was a blessing in this community, compared to keeping Dutch guilders, Belgian Francs and Deutshe Marks in various purses or wallets. People visit the area for the scenery, hiking and mountain biking.

We walked around the cobbled city, by the river, through the squares, the shopping streets. Although there are some big department stores and chain shops there are also small independent shops so it’s always nice to buy some unique clothes. Some of the shop assistants said they are visiting London in the next few weeks to shop. I guess we all just like a change and something different from what everyone else is wearing.

The main square, the Vrijthof was preparing for it’s Christmas market and fair. Side streets had decorations up. I don’t usually get into the Christmas mood in November, but I couldn’t help it in this environment. We bought a few small decorations to add to our tree back home.

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There are typical Dutch houses with their distinctive roofs. New houses fit in amongst the older houses. Aussie Uncle commented about timeframes in Europe compared to Australia, visits back to Sydney and the historic houses there, such as Cadman’s Cottage. His mother-in-law’s home here in Maastricht is older than Cadman’s.

There are several impressive churches, two overlooking the Vrijthof. Some churches have been given a new lease of life. I walked into a bookshop which is in a 13th century church. The building has new purpose but is still perfect for quiet reflective moments. All the bookstore fittings are free standing and work so well within the original structure. There is a small cafe in the chancel. You only get the true shape of the coffee tables from the upper levels of the bookstore. Another church is now a hotel with the reception area, bar and restaurant all within the old church building, bedrooms off the old cloisters. Both are original designs to mix the old with the new.

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All year round the cafés have seating outside, overlooking the squares and market places. It’s a great place to stop, relax, enjoy a coffee or beer or glass of wine and just watch the world go by.

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The city walls date back many centuries. The real D”Artagnan (fictionalised in “The Three Musketeers” by Alexandre Dumas) was killed here during a Franco-Dutch war and the Seige of Maastricht in 1673.

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And of course there are lots of bikes in Maastricht.

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Netherlands – Amsterdam and Maastricht – Sombre Moments

02 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by RuthsArc in days out, remembering / musing

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Tags

Amsterdam, holiday, Maastricht, Netherlands, photos, WW Remembrance

In Amsterdam, we visited the Anne Frank House. We’d booked tickets on line so avoided the queues.

Our visit began with a thirty minute introduction which gave background to the Frank family, their move from Frankfurt to Amsterdam, the family business and life in occupied Netherlands. There was summary of life within the house once they were in hiding and the importance of Anne’s diary. This family information was shared alongside timelines of Hitler, rise of Nazism and their anti-Jewish measures.

We then visited the actual house, the front part being the office, warehouse and storerooms where Otto Frank’s business was located. The upper floors of the “back house” was where Anne and seven others hid in this annexe for two years.

We walked through the rooms where they lived, we read excerpts of Anne’s diary, there was information about the Frank family, the other occupants and their helpers. There were short videos which added detail. Although the rooms were empty of furniture to allow visitor access, there were photos of how the rooms were furnished at the time.

Back in the modern museum buildings there was information about the concentration camps, video interviews with people who knew Anne and family, how the diaries and family photo albums were saved. The actual diary notebooks are on display, and background of how Otto Frank published the diary in 1947 in the Netherlands and its global impact.

It is a moving place and experience. C~M and I are both now reading Anne’s diary. It is incredible to read about daily life in those cramped conditions, without going outside, with windows blacked out, being quiet during the workday so they were not heard by warehouse staff.

Anne Frank Collage

The Netherlands was occupied by Germany in May 1940. Maastricht was the first Dutch city to be liberated in September 1944. During the years of occupation, there were food shortages and rationing, the same for fuel and clothes. This is mentioned in Anne Frank’s diary but I also heard a bit about this from Dutch relatives. It was not only Jews who were taken from their homes, young Dutch men were forcibly sent to Germany to work on farms to support the war effort. Some escaped and made their way back home but then had to go into hiding themselves without any ID papers or ration books.

In Maastricht we noticed small brass cobblestone sized plaques on the pavements, memorials to victims of the Holocaust. These are called “stolpersteine” in German and “struikelstenen” in Dutch. As of August this year, over 48,000 such plaques have been laid in 18 countries in Europe, being the world’s largest memorial project. The plaques state … Here Lived … Born … Murdered …

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Margraten, a few miles from Maastricht, is the site of the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial. It is close to the Cologne – Boulogne Roman road, a route the German’s used for their occupation and again for their withdrawal. A US infantry division liberated this area and the cemetery was soon established here. 8,301 graves are laid out in long curves, each marked with a cross or star of David. The Court of Honour lists the names of a further 1,722 with unknown graves. It is a vast site, beautifully maintained, similar to the British and Commonwealth cemeteries across Europe, just with different headstones. Some graves have no names, marked simply as “Known unto God”.

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