Stepping through the history in Maastrict

This time I would not the deadline pass me by so I was one of the first exchange students to sign up for the excursion to Maastrict this past Saturday. I am so glad I went on this trip because not only was this city beautiful, but it's rich history was extremely interesting to learn about on our guided city tour.

It was definitely an early morning as we all boarded the bus at 7:30am. On the bright side, it was a beautiful sunny day to be having a road on. After about an hour and a half of driving we stopped at a point half an hour before Maastrict. This was the highest point in Holland as they explained and I tried to conceal my laughter. They sure used the word 'mountain' quite loosely but considering all the flatness in Holland I guess this was a mountain to them. What is special about this area though is that on this large hill is the point where the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium all meet borders. I was standing in three countries all at once... pretty incredible. (left: Flo and I climbing on the three countries point)

After we enjoyed the area for a little bit and got some good photos, we were back in the bus to Maastrict where our tour guides were waiting. I was so impressed with the beauty of this county as we drove by. Our walking tour started just outside of the city's old walls that surround Maastrict. Our tour guide explained that Maastrict was originally settled by the Romans hundreds of years ago because the river was shallow enough to cross in the summer at that time. We walked through some beautiful green areas before entering the old city where millions of camera opportunities presented themselves.

I wish I could describe in more detail how amazing it was to look at the historical old buildings and cobblestone walkways. In Canada, history like this just doesn't exist. Our tour ended by an old cathedral where we could walk inside and look around. For our free time, Danni, Cheryl and I bought some of the famous vlaai pies which are very well known in the province of Limburg. We made it back to the visitor area in time to climb aboard for our river cruise through the city. Passing old buildings and bridges was fabulous and within half an hour we had landed at our destination.... the St Petersburg caves!!

This cave tour was my favourite part of the day. People started carving through these hillsides over 500 years ago for the limestone materials. There was over 2000 passage ways! Our tour was guided only by the lantern light of our tour guide Ed. Surprisingly, the ceilings were over 10 metres high. As Ed explained, people carve deeper and deeper into the stone so the writings and paintings near the top of the ceilings were from the 1500s/1600s while closer to our ground level the paintings and writings were within 100 years old. These caves were used by soldiers during the wars and about a thousand citizens of Maastrict. The city had made plans for the caves to be used for long term shelter during world war II but had only ended up needing them for 10 days. Nonetheless, a hospital, kitchen, sleeping areas and chapels had been created and a baby had even been born down here during those 10 days. At one point in our tour Ed left us all alone against the wall where we had to find our way around the corner.... in absolute pitch black darkness!! It was very scary but also quite fun.

Once we were out of the caves the sun nearly blinded us but we managed to make our way back to the boat cruise. We enjoyed some dinner in the city before making our way back to the bus. It was a really interesting day trip!