Sights

When coming from the railwaystation, walk straight into the faubourg of Wyck. On Saturday mornings there is a 2nd hand market opposite the station, good for local nitty gritty of the past 100 years -- books, records and pubsigns. If you continue your walk you pass a roundabout with a statue of the 4 Bischops Maastricht had in the 6th and 7th century. On the righthand side (next to McDonalds) you'll find Venezia, the best ice cream shop in town. Opposite is Patiserie Royale, where you can taste the wonderful delicacy of this region the Limburgse Vlaai. Walking towards the river we pass the pub Gijs (Spirit) where you can have a light lunch and play pool. To the left it is worthwhile walking through the Rechtstraat, with its galeries and second hand bookstores. At the end of this street we enter the Ceramique development area. This architectural challenging new place is also the location of the Centre Ceramique (the city library) and the Bonnefanten museum (the famous museum designed by Aldo Rossi).

If we cross the old Saint Servaas bridge, we enter the real city of Maastricht. Walking on the bridge we see the Saint Pieter Hill on the left, this hill (or mountain as it is called by the Dutch) is a maze of tunnels and can be visited. Very interesting by the way. It were the Romans who first started the excavation of mergel and started the underground network. Digging tunnels went on until the beginning of the 20th century when they started using the hills' mergel for making cement; hence the smoking chimney to your left. Up river to the south is the city of Liege (cannot be seen). To the right we see the Maastricht waterfront with the pottery factory and the paper mill. On the Maastricht side we immediately enter the pedestrian shopping area, at the end of which is the Vrijthof square.