Church With Modern Conveniences

In the main square of Maastricht stands two impressive churches.  The one on the left is Sint Janskerk, a Protestant church, and the one on the right is Sint Servaas, a Catholic church.

We couldn't go in Sint Janskerk, but we decided to take a better look at Sint Servaas.  We began to walk around the perimeter, where we discovered parts of the church actually spread "over" the roads to join the neighboring buildings.

One of the main doors was actually quite small, and you couldn't see most of the church while entering it.

Once inside the church, we pay a visit to the courtyard.

Bram and the giant bell.

The church had a very impressive treasury, with some items dating back many centuries.

This was a pretty neat old item - it is a combination safe!

Weird horns, with feet.

The church also had many impressive relics.  This St. Nicolas' tooth.

Proof Santa is real...

A very impressive relic - a mandible!

The arm of a saint.  A point if you can guess which one.

A neat sculpture featuring Jesus sitting on Mary's lap, and Mary sitting on St. Anne's lap.

A modern church, with modern conveniences.

Inside, the very impressive stained glass windows.

On one of the facades of the church, the statues and door have been repainted.  This is what many of the cathedrals used to look like (including Notre Dame!) before the paint faded away!

The floor had representations of several of the ancient great cities.

Jerusalem

Constantinople

The interior was recently repainted as well, showing how this cathedral, and others, used to look like when they were first constructed.

Some of the modern stained glass, replacing windows that did not survive the centuries.

Trusting your Tour Guide

Nearby Maastricht is Fort Sint Pieter.  The fort was built around 1700 and saw a lot of action, given its very strategic, central location.

Nearby are caves, which are actually mines.  A point if you can guess what was mined here!  Caves as you might think are unusual in the Netherlands, and for some reason, calling your underground labyrinth a cave rather than a mine draws more tourists.  Shrug.

Heading underground with our tourguide.

The mines have a very rich history.  The excavation of the mines started in a haphazard fashion when individual farmers or landowners would mine directly underneath what they owned.  (This is the area you can see to the right on the map below, where the tunnels look completely random.)  Later, the church, which owned more land, undertook a more systematic exploration of the tunnels, where paths met at right angles (the area on the left of the map).  Imagine getting lost in here!    

But the history of these mines gets only more interesting.  During many times over the course of history, the mines were used as places for people to hide and take shelter.  The mines hosted a chapel, bakery, and a hospital during WWII.  They were tons of charcoal drawings, and some of these date from the time of WWII, showing which areas served which purpose.

After the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, the Nazis also used these caves.  They had occupied Amsterdam and the famous Rijksmuseum, which hosted hundreds of priceless pieces of art.  Because they also did not want to damage the pieces of art by moving them all back to Germany during the war, the Nazis used these tunnels as a safe storage place, somewhere they could keep the paintings and then move them to Germany at a later time.

This is the door leading into the chamber where many of these paintings were stored.  

Walking into vault.

The paintings were stored on movable wire "walls" that could be slid on tracks, keeping everything safe.  This particular portion of the cave was also climate controlled with an air conditioning system that was state of the art at the time.

You may be wondering what happened to the very famous "Night Watch" by Rembrandt during this time.  If you ever have seen this painting in person - it is huge - nearly 12 feet high and more than 14 feet long.  It was far too large to be stored on these walls, so instead, it was wrapped in oriental carpets and placed in the corner.  It was someone's job every day to turn a crank so that the painting/rug roll was rotated by 90 degrees every day, so that it was not permanently deformed.  After the Netherlands was liberated, the art was restored back to its home in the Rijksmuseum.

Paintings were not the only things on the walls - there was also graffiti, dating back to at least the 1950s...

Through the tunnels.

Our tour guide is briefing us on what we are about to do.  He's going to turn off the lights.  Ok, no big deal, I've been in caves and mines so many times and I've experienced complete darkness so I wasn't worried.  But then he said we are going to walk through the caves without light.  In the pitch blackness.

Let me tell you this - walking in the dark is completely different than just being in the dark.

He had us walk down the tunnel you see behind us with one hand on the wall.  My brain knew that he wouldn't have us walk down a tunnel that had any dropoffs, or pieces of rock hanging from the ceiling, or sharp turns.   But my brain was also causing rising panic.  Ok, I kept my cool.  Still, it was quite an experience, and a lot scarier than I thought it would be.

Into the tunnel, blind.  Notice the painting behind our tour guide.

Bram, our light carrier, checks out some of the paintings.

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!!!  ;-)