Benelux 2015: Snowy Maastricht

There've been a lot of unbelievable - and mostly positive - things going on here since I've come back home yesterday, but you'll have to wait a bit for this lazy blogger to tell you all her news! ;) Today I'll take you on a short virtual trip to Maastricht, a beautiful city in the very South-East on the Netherlands.

That was the day before my departure that the winter came to Belgium - finally everything was covered with snow! Of course, Belgium isn't the same as Israel, so a bit of snow doesn't paralyse the whole country, but it still makes traveling a bit more complicated. Snow is quite rare in Belgium and so many drivers don't even have the winter tyres, which leads to an increase in the number of car accident. Still, my dad decided that we should try to go to Maastricht and just drive carefully. That's how I went to the Netherlands for the 3rd time in just 10 days! :)

The Meuse river in Maastricht.

Maastricht might be the oldest city of the Netherlands, although they have a dispute with Nijmegen, which got the status of town earlier, even if the settlement of Maastricht was older. You know, it's probably a bit like with the "geographic centres of Europe" - there are at least 5 of them and I've seen 2! ;) But no matter if Maastricht is indeed the oldest city, or "only" the 2nd oldest, it's definitely a wonderful place full of fascinating historic sights. And, even from my ignorant point of view, it looks quite different than other Dutch cities. Probably it's due to it's location in Limburg region, which is just next to the borders with Belgium and Germany and has been ruled by several countries at different points in history. Have you ever heard of the Limburgish language? I found out about its existence just one day before our trip to Maastricht! It has the status of a regional language in Limburg province and you can indeed see bilingual street names in Maastricht.

Another church turned into a bookshop.

One of my favourite places in Maastricht was the Dominicanen Bookshop located in a 700-years old former church. It's quite similar to the one in Zwolle - it also consists of the bookshop itself and a café, but I think the one in Maastricht is more stunning and also better planned. I wonder, whether there are more church-bookshops in the Netherlands? I should check it one day. Coming back to the topic, which I've started in my previous blog entry, it's an interesting issue: what should be we do about the empty churches, while there are less and less relgious people in West European countries? I'm not going to write about the reasons of decrease in religiousness, which would be an even more controversial issue, but the fact is that it costs a lot to mantain those enormous medieval churches and that there are few people left, who'd come to the services each Sunday. There are also not enough priests and, as a result, many churches have to be closed. This isn't exactly the case with the Dominican Church in Maastricht, which was closed over 200 years ago, but there are many other churches, which used to serve their original purpose until recently. So is it acceptable to run a business in a former church? From my point of view it is, because we have to be realistic and accept the fact that our society has changed. And I think a bookshop is one of those options, which are easiest to take even for those people, who are against the secularisation. After all, books can also help people to develop spiritually. I'm a bit more sceptical when it comes to turning churches into pubs (my dad has told me about such case in Belgium). It doesn't offend me, but I think it might still hurt the feelings of the religious people. And although I'm very liberal, I think that hurting people should be avoided, whenever it's possible. Moreover, I think that old churches still have a special atmosphere, which is just perfect for contemplation and meditation, but not neccesarily for partying. Therefore I really admire this idea of using former churches as beautiful and unusual bookshops! My dad has even been able to buy some books there. :) And me? Unfortunately I can't speak Dutch yet. ;)

Next to the Basilica of Saint Servatius.

But of course, not all the churches in Maastricht have been turned into bookshops. ;) This Catholic basilica has existed for almost 1500 years, although the current structure, which is partly in Romanesque and partly in Gothic style, was built between 11th and 12th century. Sometimes it saddens me a bit when I read how people would destroy very ancient churches to buy bigger and newer "versions" from time to time, but well, they had no idea about protection of historic heritage back in the Middle Ages. ;)

At the market square.

Maastricht also has a very nice market square and of course they sell my dad's favourite "Dutch sushi" there - I think he had 2 this time! ;) I still didn't dare to taste it, but I've tried crab meat for the first time - at least it was cooked and not raw! ;) After those gastronomic experiments we went for a walk along the old city walls...

The city walls

I loved this part of old Maastricht, as there were very few people and it felt just very cosy. The snow made my impressions even better! The gray sky (which is unfortunately typical for this part of Europe in the winter) is so much easier to stand, when you have some snow under your feet! :) Surely, that's nothing compared to those mountains of snow which I've seen in Odessa on 1st January, but as for the Netherlands and Belgium that was real winter! :) I'm glad I was able to experience it before flying back home. And tomorrow I'll tell you about my favourite country of Benelux. Yes, that small one! ;)