Florida of the Netherlands

I'm back from a long absence from blogging with new inspiration.  My husband recently took me on a weekend getaway to Maastricht, the southernmost city in the Netherlands.  It's located on a peninsula of land wedged between Belgium and Germany, on what my husband calls "the Florida of the Netherlands".  Being so close to so many different countries gives Maastricht a very international feel, and many people speak German or French.  The overall feel of Maastricht actually reminded me quite a bit of Belgium.

The town hall

And neat buildings around the town

In one of the town squares we meet some odd characters who were masquerading as art.

Notice the little yarn hat on the creature.  This was a remnant of the big Marti Gras celebration that Maastricht holds, which was the weekend before we visited, since Maastircht is in the "Catholic" part of the Netherlands.  There were other little bits of evidence of Marti Gras:

Even Mary did a little partying.  

Confetti, prevalent in the places where revelers gathered.

Around town: in the main market, we saw a McDonald's.  Notice how the windows are stained glass!

This is one of the oldest churches in the city - it's called Basiliek van Onze-Lieve-Vrouw (the Basillica of Our Lady in English and Notre Dame in French).  It was a really old church - and the building started in its present form in the 11th and 12th centuries!  Unfortunately, photos were not allowed inside, but it was simply beautiful and could be described as one of those moments that took my breath away.  Shafts of light came through the multicolored stained glass, creating trails of colored light filtering through the smoky interior, projecting images of the stained glass on the walls opposite.  Absolutely stunning.

Another popular site is a bakery powered by a water mill.  

The yummy pies at the bakery.  But I'm a GOOD WIFE and didn't eat anything in front of my gluten free husband!!!

Canals, city streets.

This snake is laughing at his friend.

Now you see why!  The snake has a small irritating fish latched onto his tail by means of sharp teeth!

The city has many old walls that were part of the city's defense.  These walls kept expanding outward to incorporate more and more of the city as the population grew.  Some of the old gates still exist today.

The oldest gate in the country is called Helpoort, or Hell's Gate.

Interesting name to give to the door to your city....

On top of the city walls, you can still see how they were viewed as defensive positions.

Across the river, the rest of the city stands.

It's a river - not a canal!

According to google maps directions, they encouraged us to walk down this questionable walkway that ran down the middle of the river!

Delft blue decorates this house.

The view of the inside of the city walls.  It's a pretty cool place to park your bike!

We even found mini-golf in the Netherlands!  Only, it's called "Midgetgolf"!

And finally, we ran across this interesting street name.  A point if you understand what this street is named for!

And this point is mostly given to see if anyone still reads my blog after my long absence.  Even if you don't want a point - leave a comment to let me know that some readers are still out there!!!  ;-)