Maastricht

A few weeks ago when Shanna & I watched The Netherlands upset Brazil in a World Cup game, Shanna said if The Netherlands made it to the championship game we should go watch it with the Dutch in Maastricht.  So Wednesday night last week, after the Dutch were in and Germany was out, we booked a hotel.  Apparently we weren't the only ones with that idea, so we had some trouble finding hotels that weren't ridiculously expensive and that also allowed dogs.  Unfortunately we couldn't find any, but a lady we'd gotten to be friends with at the hotel we stayed at for the first month has always said if we ever wanted to get out of town for a weekend, she'd be more then happy to look after the dogs.  She has several at home in the US and misses them, so she'd love to have a few dogs running around for a few days.  She was free Sunday, so Sunday morning we dropped them off and hit the road.

The drive up was almost uneventful.  At one point traffic slowed down, and we could see smoke ahead.  As we got closer we saw a minivan completely engulfed in flames, and parts of the grass around it on fire.  It looked like everyone got out unhurt, but neither of us had ever seen anything like that in person.  As we drove by it was amazing the intense heat we felt coming off the van.  Other then that it was smooth sailing all 4 hours to Maastricht.

We got lucky with the hotel...it was two buildings over from the hotel we stayed at the last time we were here 2 years ago, and it was just a few minutes walk to the Market Square and the town square.  It had a "Hollywood" theme to it, and was nice.  The only downside was it was HOT that day, and there was no AC in the hotel.  We changed into our Orange clothes, and hit the town...but not without taking a picture first.

We got out to the square around 4:30-5:00...a full 3 1/2 to 4 hours before the game started, and the market square was already starting to get packed.  We got lucky and found a seat outside, and all the bars in the square had TV's out.  It was fun watching with the huge group of Dutch fans, but unfortunately they lost.  If they had won the place would have gone nuts, but since they didn't, people just started quietly leaving and going home afterwards.  It was disappointing, but still a unique experience watching them play in their home country.  

The next day Shanna had heard about a fort used as a storage bunker in WWII, and an American WWII cemetery near town.  We drove to the fort, but it was closed.  The Cemetery, though, was open and VERY impressive.

It had the names of everyone buried there engraved along the side walls, and the center tower was a bell tower / chapel.  In the back is where all the men were buried.  When you first walked up there was a side section that laid out in detail the Allied liberation of Holland.  An interesting fact is The Netherlands donated the land in 1960 to the U.S., and the U.S. Government built and currently maintains the grounds.

As we left there we wanted to find an Albert Hijnes, a grocery store chain found all over The Netherlands.  Just like we had done in Belgium, we wanted to buy some of the local beer to bring back.  The cemetery was outside of town, and the closest AH was in a small town further out called Valkenburg.  Neither one of us had heard of it, but it was a quaint little town!  The AH was right next to their part of town that was lined with restaurants, taverns, and stores.  We had planned on just getting what we needed from AH, and heading home, but we had to walk around.  We found a little pub to eat lunch at, and ended up talking with three older guys who were also at the pub.  They asked where we were from, and were shocked when we told them America.  They thought we had traveled to their small town all the way straight from the US.  They were a little less surprised when we told them we actually lived in Germany.  It was nice talking with them though.

After that it was getting late, and we didn't want to get back to Stuttgart too late since our friend was doing us a favor looking after Milo & Murphy.

To see the pictures from the weekend, click here or click any of the pictures above.