We spent this past weekend in Maastricht, which deserves its esteemed reputation as the most lovely city in the Netherlands. Despite this somewhat sad-and-rainy snapshot from the bridge over the River Maas, it was sunny for the better part of the weekend, too.
Among other things, our time in Maastricht was a bonanza of eating out. This was a nice change of pace, if a little on the painfully slow and expensive side.
But, like most of the European countries I've ever visited, tap water isn't on the menu and one (in this case, me) gets the sense that it would be tacky to ask for it. Since the bottled water is more expensive than local beers, I've concluded that the only smart thing to do is drink beer instead.
Beer also helps one feel less reserved about slide-tackling a waiter, which is sometimes what it comes down to if one wants to place an order or get the check.
Though it was not exactly the culinary height of our time in Maastricht, the architectural height was our lunch in a cafe in a cathedral-turned-bookstore called Selexyz Dominicanen. Also known as The. Coolest. Bookstore. Ever.
Although we could have spent all weekend in this particular bookstore, we found all kinds of treasures in Maastricht's maze of charming, narrow streets: an olive store, a cheese shop, a violin maker, a waffel maker, and art galleries and bakeries galore.
We also spotted a donut truck, whose Dutch translation prompted some deep soul-searching about the future of my donut eating.
Even as I politely declined the opportunity to hork down an "oil ball", we did, in a moment of twist-my-arm desperation, eat pie with our coffee for breakfast on Saturday morning.
Limburg, the province where Maastricht is located, is famous for a fantastically delicious concoction called vlaai. It's hard to describe how it's different from regular pie; a rough approximation is that the crust is soft and almost cake-like, and the apricot filling has a custard-like consistency.
Whatever it is, it sure beats the hell out of muesli.
If you thought we could escape the bookstore without adding some weight to our luggage, you might be delusional...but we did keep the damage to a minimum.
First, we found an enormous children's book called Beesten Boek. This is full of essential Dutch vocabulary, such as vogelspin (tarantula), moerasschilpad (swamp turtle), oehoe (owl), and stinkdier (skunk).
Frankly, I'm not sure how we've made it this far without knowing the Dutch word for giant clam. (Doopvontschelp, for the record.)
We also found a book called 501 Must-Visit Islands. (Also known as, How to Go Bankrupt in Only Six Months!)
This purchase nearly brought John to tears and led to his own personal version of nirvana:
An afternoon snack of olives (from the aforementioned olijvenwinkel) and washed rind, raw milk Pont-l'Eveque (which isn't available in the U.S. due to pesky pasteurization laws), all in the company of a lushly illustrated book about 501 far-flung, only marginally inhabited atolls.
Food and books aside (though what else is there, really?), we also had fun exploring the city's churches and buildings, some of the remaining Carnaval decorations, and the Roman ruins on the outskirts of the city.
