Maastricht Part 8: The Market

Despite the miserable weather we've been having over the last few days (the snow was like lazers when it hit your eyes):

the weekly market will take place tomorrow in, aptly named, the Markt.  The market occurs every Wednesday and Friday, with the Friday one having more vendors.

The market contains the same types of things you would find in a traditional farmer's market in the States such as vegetables and fruits:

Baked goods:

The pies are called vlaai and are traditional here in Limburg.  You may have heard of Limburg Pie, there it is in the crust.  The more orangy/brown-colored ones have rice pudding as their filling, which is pretty darn tasty.  The market also has an assortment of fish, meats, cheeses, and eggs:

Even some colorful eggs thrown in as the Easter holiday approaches.  I didn't get a picture of cheese because the cheese vendor was crowded and I didn't care to wait, just trust me it is for sale at the market. The market also has some things you may not see at a traditional farmer's market like flowers, spices, and nuts:

Beyond all those, there are vendors selling bagged coffee and perfume:

I didn't pick up any US Army cologne.  I'm not sure I would like the smell very much anyway.

In addition to all of the above named items, the number one product, at least by vendor space, is fabric:

There are so many colors, textures, and types of fabric one would think the average Dutch person makes their own clothes.

The market is a great place to get relatively cheap food.  For 5 Euros (~ $6.50), what it would cost me to buy a bunch of bananas and a kilogram of oranges in the supermarket, I got this haul a few months back:

The coconut was difficult to get into without tools handy, but once I finally got it open it was worth it.  You can also get about four pounds of chicken breast for around $13.  Admittedly I don't do the shopping at home, so I don't know if that is a good deal or not, but it's much cheaper than the supermarkets here.

Did I mention a lot of vendors at the market sell fabric:

Because they do.

Until next time.

Maastricht Part 7: The Christmas Markt

For almost the entire month of December, the Vrijthof was turned into a Christmas Markt.  For those who have been to the Christmas Markt in Nuremberg, or even the one in Bamberg, the Maastricht Markt was much smaller.  It had small stands for vendors like the other markts had:

But there weren't that many and the things for sale were all of crappy to worse quality.  What this Christmas Markt had that set it apart though were rides:

It may be hard to tell in that second shot, but way in the back, just in front of the basilica is one of those giant slides.  In the foreground, with the fake sparkly tree in the middle, is an ice skating rink.  The tree, and even the slide, stood out at night:

All in all the markt wasn't anything special.  From what I was told a lot of people here travel to the Aachen, Cologne, or Dusseldorf Christmas Markts as they are bigger and not terribly far away.

Besides the markt, Maastricht had many more Christmas decorations up throughout the city.  In fact, city workers were busy putting up lights beginning around Halloween.

Like most European cities during Christmas, the combination of the crisp winter air, the decorations, and the sweets being sold by numerous vendors made Maastricht a very nice place to be leading up to Christmas.

That being said, I was excited about spending the actual holidays in Connecticut with my family.  I departed Maastricht on the 19th of December and visited family and friends in Connecticut until the 8th of January, at which time I flew to Kansas.  Just over a month later, I was able to welcome Penny back from deployment with four days to spend with her before returning to Maastricht.

While our time together before my return was short, Penny is coming to visit and will arrive here in just over a week.  We have plans to travel to Stuttgart to see some friends, London, and Turkey.  I'll be sure to post about our trips in a more timely manner than I have been.  Before she arrives though I have a post about the normal market that takes place here every Wednesday and Friday that I'll get to in the next few days.

Maastricht Part 6: Utrecht

It's been quite a while since I've last posted.  I would like to say that it is due to a high volume of strenuous school work, but it is more likely due to laziness.  That is not to say the school work isn't voluminous or strenuous, but when I'm not focused on that I like to relax and get away from my computer.

That is precisely what I did way back in November when I traveled to the city of Utrecht to watch a Coheed and Cambria concert.  The band is a progressive rock band from New York that I started listening to in 2000 during my first year of college.  Including this most recent show, I've seen them three times, and each time was great.  The first was at a rock festival in Stevenage, England, where they were scheduled to play on the main stage but were delayed coming over from Germany.  They were rescheduled on a secondary stage which resulted in their show being much more intimate.  The second show was in Kansis City:

This last show was great as well, and what made it great was how small the venue was at which they played. It was at a place called Tivoli (not the gardens in Copenhagen) right in downtown Utrecht:

I took this picture while I was out sight-seeing before the show.  I wanted to be sure I could find the place again later that night.

I asked one of my classmates who is from Utrecht what there is to do there.  He told me to see the tower. That was it.  So I went and saw the tower:

While there, I heard three guys speaking English and discussing the architecture of a church adjacent to the tower.  Turned out to be three of the guys from the band:

From left to right is Josh Eppard (drums), Zach Cooper (bass), and Claudio Sanchez (vocals and guitar). Claudio has a scarf wrapped around his head because his hair is crazy:

Gangsta indeed.

I thought about talking to them, but I decided against it because I figured they were out sight-seeing and enjoying the crappy, gray weather I've come to expect here in the Netherlands and probably didn't want to be bothered.  I'm sure they would have given me an autograph and probably even posed in a picture with me, but oh well.

As I mentioned the venue was small.  Here is a picture from where I was standing.  The rear wall of the place was about 15 feet behind me:

The next morning I did a little more sight-seeing before heading for the train station and Maastricht:

Like Amsterdam and most other places in the Netherlands, Utrecht has plenty of canals, which I'm sure are nice when it is warm out.

All in all I had a good time at the concert and in Utrecht.  While I didn't get any autographs, I did get some inspiration on what to name any son I may have in the future: