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:

Maastricht Part 5: 11 November

I know I mentioned this post would contain information concerning my trip to Utrecht, but I wanted to post some pictures from today.

Apparently, the Carnaval Season starts on the 11th of November here in the Netherlands.  To celebrate, the residents of Maastricht dress up in crazy costumes, listen to music, and drink beer.  The city closed off the main square and set up a mini-fest.  Here are some pictures I snapped during my walk today:

These are toilets set up right outside my door.  Not much privacy, but great for a guy whose been drinking all day considering the bathrooms at the fest cost money.  I didn't get involved in the festivities, so there was no reason for me to use these.

Lastly, as I was walking around I heard a familiar song, you might recognize it as well:

Maastricht Part 4: The Limburg Countryside

A few (read: many) weeks ago I was invited to see the Limburg countryside by a Dutch student who studied at Washburn University School of Law last year.  Here is a recount of what happened that day.

Laurie picked us (two other Washburn students and me) up at the train station and drove us to Margraten. We didn't see much by way of the town, but we went to the Netherlands American Cemetery and walked around.  Like all other military cemeteries, it was hauntingly beautiful and very meticulously maintained.

In total there are six Medal of Honor winners buried there.  I had no idea what LTC Cole earned his MOH for before I took the picture of his grave marker, but afterwards I read about it and it was pretty amazing.  As a quick way to put it, he did what just about every other battalion commander (and military leader at that) envisions their combat time will be like - he fixed bayonets and charged enemy positions.

After we spent a good while at the cemetery (where I got asked a lot of questions about the military by the others on the trip), we had ourselves a Dutch treat:

These are called Negerzoenen, which translates to "Negro Kisses."  There has been a movement in the manufacturing business to shorten the name to simply Zoenen.  They consist of a wafer topped with marshmallow and covered in chocolate.  They were good, but one is almost too much sugar for one person. So what did we do after we had too much sugar from the zoenen?  We went for ice cream.

For about $5 I got three scoops of vanilla ice cream covered in about a pound of cherries, strawberries, and raspberries.  Despite the fact that it was about 45 degrees outside (and that is where we ate), the ice cream was amazing and something I will have to do again once it warms up in the spring.

Once we had finished our ice cream, we headed to the highest point in the Netherlands, which coincidentally is also the point where Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands meet.  The Dutch have turned the area into a mini-theme park-esque area with a fake little village where they sell over-priced food and souvenirs.  There was also a labyrinth:

We never actually figured out how to get out, we just back-tracked and went out the entrance.  Here is a picture of the four of us who traveled.  I've got the beard, then it is Laurie (Dutch), Kali, and Lauren.  Kali and Lauren are in their third year at Washburn.  Kali is spending the entire year here studying for her masters in tax law (gross) and Lauren is just here for the semester.

Here is the actual point where the three countries meet.  I have labeled them to make it easier to tell (there aren't red lines on the ground, though there are thin strips of metal).

Lastly, we took the elevator to the top of the look out tower where I snapped this panorama of the three countries (the second photo shows roughly where the borders are).

These lines aren't perfectly laid out, but you get the idea.  All in all it was a good day seeing the areas outside of the city limits since I haven't gotten out too much (though I have run to Belgium twice in the last month; it is about a 4-mile trip each way).

Preview for next post (whenever that may be): seeing Coheed & Cambria in Utrecht.

Maastricht Part 3: The Faculty of Law

I wrote a little about the university in my first post; here I will discuss the Faculty of Law a little and provide some pictures.

As a general introduction, the university has six faculties: Arts and Social Science; Business and Economics; Health, Medicine, and Life Sciences; Humanities and Sciences; Law; and Psychology and Neuroscience.  So within the university there are a number of sub-units known as faculties.  In the US we would refer to them as schools, but with a little difference for the law faculty.

Law schools in the US are part of larger universities (sometimes), but they are separate in the sense that law schools normally occupy their own buildings and are somewhat insulated from the undergrad (and other master-level degree schools) part of the university.  Here, the faculty of law encompasses everyone who is studying law from the first year undergrad to the Ph.D. candidate.  We don't mix classes (some exchange students will jump between masters and bachelors classes), but you can never be sure what level of education a person in the hallway has.  Additionally, unlike the US, the faculty of law does not have a separate library, so it is still a surprise to me when I go to study and the people sitting next to me are working on the quadratic equation (it is also a little surprising since that was high school math).

The faculty of law has its own building:

The building used to be the seat of the regional government of Limburg.  Because of the history of the building, it has some pretty stately rooms.  Here are the two rooms where most of the lectures are held:

The first picture is of the Festzaal.  The Festzaal is also the room used for the moot court competitions.  It is a gorgeous room, but it is quite formal so it really feels like the lecturer is talking at you.  The second room is the Staatenzaal.  Despite the brightly colored chairs (if you've ever been to continental Europe, you have probably seen how the Europeans love to mix the old buildings with contemporary decorations), it is a very beautiful room with great windows that are populated by the coat of arms of the towns in Limburg:

You can see the red shield with the white star of Maastricht in the upper right.  Unfortunately, not all of the rooms are as nice.  The tutorial rooms are much smaller and normally cramped.  Of course, the one I took a picture of is probably the nicest tutorial room in the entire building.  Either way, it gives you an idea of where the "real" learning happens:

As I mentioned earlier, because of the building's previous purpose, there are many impressive features:

Of course, the faculty does their best to make this place seem less like the former seat of a regional government and more like Hogwarts:

This was the best one, but it seems that each (I'm assuming) former dean chooses a ridiculous pose for their picture.

Below are some pictures of the library.  It is a nice building, but is way too crowded since it is the only library (there is another one but it is about a 15-minute bike ride away) in the downtown area.  I really miss having a separate law library when I go there and can't find any place to sit and study.  The entrance is through this gate:

The building has three US floors (two and a ground floor if you're European) and what would seem like plenty of seating:

All in all the faculty of law is a nice place to learn (I have only walked through one other university building and it seemed quite nice as well), just like the city of Maastricht itself.  In fact, the university was ranked the 19th best university under 50 years old in the world.

As a side-note, if you are interested in seeing the horrible pictures I took of the World Championship Road Race a couple weeks ago, they will hopefully be posted here soon.

As a preview of the next installment, I ran through three countries this weekend in the span of about three seconds.  Till then, doei.

Maastricht Part 2: The Apartment

As I mentioned last post, I live right off one of the main squares in the heart of Maastricht.  The apartment, if located in NYC, is what you would call a 4th floor walk-up.  Of course, since the apartment is in Europe it is on the 3rd floor (the 1st floor as we know it is the ground floor) and the lack of an elevator is normal.

The place is perfect for a single person, as it has one bedroom, an open living room area, a small kitchen, and a tiny bathroom.  But since I'm a poor college student, I am sharing the apartment with a schoolmate. Here are some pictures:

This is the building:

Here are the kitchen and bathroom:

Lastly, as a consequence of putting two people into a one bedroom apartment, here is a picture of my cozy corner of the living room:

I have to get to IKEA soon and buy some dividers, but so far it hasn't been too big of an issue since I am normally awake before my roommate.

The real selling point of the place is the location, and while this picture doesn't really do it justice, it shows how close we are to the main squares (the dome on top of the town hall situated in the Markt can be seen in the back left of the shot):

Just beyond that tree is the Vrijthof, which I spoke about last post.

Despite being so close to downtown and much of the shopping/eating establishments, there are still times that I want to get out into the 'burbs a bit and enjoy nature.  In order to do that I either have to walk 30 minutes, or hop on my bike and ride for 10.  The cycling culture in the Netherlands is like no other - there are almost as many miles of bike paths as there are miles of roadways.  Everyone from small children to elderly people ride their bikes everywhere, in all types of weather.  Sometimes it is a bit of a rough ride in the city because of the cobblestones, but beyond that it is quite easy and enjoyable to get around by bike because the country is pretty flat.

Here is my bike (I bought it used and will sell it before I leave next summer) locked up just outside of town while awaiting the peloton to pass during the World Championship race last weekend:

There are six total apartments in the building.  The other day I met my downstairs neighbor; he is an Air Weapons Officer in the Air Force stationed just across the border in Germany at a NATO base.  He seems like a real nice guy and has a pretty interesting job.  It's always nice to have a military guy to talk with as it breaks up the academia by which I'm surrounded.

Till next time.