April 2, 2018
Day 7: Roggel to Maastricht
We took a turn through Roggel just for a look at what excitement the town had to offer. But our hotel and the church beside seemed to be liveliest spot going. In comparison to Roggel, Apeldoorn is Los Vegas. Literally all the residential buildings are made from dull brown brick, and while there are a few commercial enterprises which might even have white brick, they are not big on signage, or windows.
This is not to say we are down on staid and quiet Netherlands. In fact we rather like and admire it. Cycling along in the semi rural countryside we continued to notice the care with which everything is pruned and trimmed. We seem to have not the slightest hope of achieving anything like this on our home farm.
One time we came to a hedge which had some stray shoots sticking up. Outrageous! I almost took a photo of this phenomenon!
Every 1/2 km or so we would arrive at a junction point of the various bike paths, with the map showing where you are and the signs leading to the adjacent junctions. The maps show a web of green routes. But it would be wrong to think that only these routes are available. In fact, car routes that are not large motorways almost always have parallel bike paths. This is important, because a lot of time and distance can be lost noodling around the bike path webwork. Better to jump on a through motorway and get somewhere.
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Aside from well trimmed hedges, the area we were passing through featured well pruned fruit trees. This was significant to us because of something from Montreal. While we were there Sabrina happened to buy some apples that she has found are really good at this time of year. They are called Red Prince and come from an accidental cross of Golden Delicious and Red Jonathan. This happened near Weert, Netherlands - a town we passed very near today. The apple was brought by Weert residents Irma and Marius Botden to Canada, and they now grow them in Ontario. It did not seem that we were likely to find them near Weert any longer, though we did think about staying in the town to find out.
The thing about Red Prince is that it improves in storage, and reaches peak flavour about now. That's unique for an apple and they were truly good in March, in Montreal.
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We had not been thinking about it so we were mildly surprised when we suddenly passed into Belgium. There was a finger of Belgium in our route here, and we passed back into Netherlands before reaching Maastricht. Strangely, this bit of Belgium was noticeably different from the part of Netherlands we had left. Houses we slightly more flamboyant, with different shades of bricks, and we actually saw some weeds, and even a couple of messy yards.
But of course the similarities were much greater than the differences. There was still no question of having to ride the bikes in traffic and in fact we soon got onto a dedicated bike route that eventually took us to a canal path that went all the way to Maastricht. Canal riding is good, because the waterway makes it harder to get lost. And canals have interesting things, like ducks, geese, and swans to look at, as well as canal boats.
The canal ride was about 2o kms, and it quickly took us into the middle of Maastricht. We had just arrived at the town and were not yet oriented when we stopped at an intersection and motioned a family that was crossing to carry on in front of us. For no particular reason we also exchanged greetings, and so the small group stopped to talk to us. It turned out one had been quite a cyclist, doing both racing and touring. He had been born in Maastricht and was a policeman here. The people guided us to the town centre and wished us a good trip. The significance of this little incident is that we felt welcomed to the town, which is a great feeling. This has happened to us in many another town as well. It stems of course from the nice people of the town, but also from being on bikes. The funny clothes no doubt help as well!
Like all towns that sit on a river, the water is a useful landmark for understanding the layout. And generally the town itself is simply spread along usually one side of the river. Maastricht is like that, and though both banks of the Maas have nice townscapes, the main centre is on the west (left) bank.
In the old town we quickly discovered the two main squares. These are large and lined with buildings that have typical Dutch narrow facades. It is very picturesque. The squares and surrounding walking streets have lots of outdoor restaurants and strolling people.
At one side of the largest square was St Jan's church. Churches in protestant regions are normally boring (compared to usually extravagant Catholic ones), but this one had an interesting assemblage of towers, one a striking red. The church, which was built in the 17th century started out as a Catholic one, since Maastricht was occupied by Spain. But the Protestants captured the area and it was taken over by the Dutch Reformed Church.
We learned that red paint is used for many important buildings here. In this case the tower is built from soft stone which is plastered and then painted to preserve the plaster.
The interior of the church was suitably plain but for two and a half euros you can climb the tower for a view of the town. I counted 218 steps and after a day of cycling, I felt it! Unfortunately (or fortunately) at the top mesh barriers protect you from falling . But they also get in the way of photos. Here are some I did get:
The town centre has a number of churches, and there is one with a decidedly Catholic touch. It's the Basilica of Our Lady of the Sea. This houses a Mary statue, for some reason called the "Star of the Sea". There is little explanation in the area around it, but lots of people light candles there. It turns out to be something of a pilgrimage site. See here.
The hotels on the left bank are quite expensive and none admits to having bike storage. But Dodie found one on the other bank, near the train station, that turned out to be just dandy (the Hotel Townhouse, 69 euros). Not only did it have a large parking garage, but in the also large lobby they offer hot soup, coffee, and fruit. That was all we needed to avoid trying to search out a restaurant.
Our room here is large and modern - they said we got an upgrade for some reason - and the wifi is very fast. With a real desk to be typing at, I am really happy.
Tomorrow - Germany!
Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 238 km (148 miles)
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