Maastricht

Introducing Maastricht

Make no bones about it: Maastricht is utterly beautiful. The Crown Jewel of the south –maybe even the entire country – it’s about as far from windmills, clogs and tulips as you’d want. Much of the Netherlands has a ‘samey’ feel to it, but here there are Spanish and Roman ruins, cosmopolitan food, French and Belgian twists in the architecture, a shrugging off of the shackles of Dutch restraint. Even the landscape’s different: there are actually hilly streets and what passes for mountains ringing the centre. Unsurprisingly, many locals see themselves as a sophisticated breed apart from the north; by the same token, earthy northerners see posh Maastricht as having an identity crisis – are these people Dutch or what?

Spanning both banks of the Maas river, with a host of pavement cafés and lovely old cobblestone streets, Maastricht is renowned for world-class dining and an elegant atmosphere that’s exquisitely addictive. Hemmed in between Belgium and Germany, it has a pan-European flavour: the average citizen bounces easily between Dutch, English, French, German and Flemish (maybe more). Appropriately, the city hosted two key moments in the history of the EU: on 10 December 1991, the 12 members of the then European Community met to sign the treaty for economic, monetary and political union; they reconvened the following February to sign the treaty creating the EU.

No Netherlands itinerary is complete without visiting Maastricht. If you’re heading this way by rail or road to Belgium, you’d be doing yourself a disservice to bypass this wonderful town.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009