Visiting the Rhine? Take a Bike.

Two days on the Rhine were somehow how too much and not enough time for me. On one hand the area we visited between Koblenz and Bacharach is absolutely gorgeous and has villages that are the definition of quaint (in a good way). On the other, we discovered that we can’t stand driving vacations anymore.

Unfortunately I’ve been trying to type this blog post for two days now, but despite the trip’s obvious charms and my desire to camp/bike in the area, I can’t come up with something appropriately poetic. Instead, here are my Do & Don’t takeaway impressions from the trip.

Don’t drive! That means you Americans. Yes you might get their faster (if you can navigate the roads) and a car may seem like a sensible way to get around (beware narrow “two way” streets and pedestrians), but there are very few bridges over the river and most of the towns and roads are not made for automobiles. Some still have their medieval walls. Spare yourself the headache and use the train to get to your destination. There’s a line running down both sides of the river.

Do seek out English language tours, if you want to visit some of the many many castles built along the river (we saw at least 14 between Kolbenz and Bacharach alone). In the region we visited, most castles only offer tours in German, unless an English bus tour comes through. We saw one castle and it was interesting but not being able to understand the guide makes tours much less engaging. If you’re really into castles, a bus tour might be the way to go actually.

Do try the wine. Dan doesn’t like wine but he was all over the sweet Reislings they make.

Do try the Peach Brandy as well; it’s a lesser known product of the region and very rich.

Don’t buy too much junk. The quaint villages are full of tourist traps. Keep your purchases to a minimum and try only to buy things you can’t get anywhere else.

Do some biking. The area we were in was easier to bike than Maastricht, fun, and it didn’t take long to cover a significant stretch of land. I’m inspired to spend a lot more time in the Rhine region biking. The towns will be very accessible although the castles are mostly too high up the steep mountains to bike to. You can approach most of the public castles by hiking or taking a special bus.

Do try a boat ride, but unless you really, really love cruising Don’t make this the main focus of your time. We took a three hour ride and I fell asleep (ok, so the wine might have had something to do with it). I can’t imagine how boring a week long cruise on the river would be. At least by bike or train or (shutter) car, you can stop whenever you want.

Camping? You could. We saw lots of campers along the river. Most even had TV dishes and are located near the towns.

Do take lots of photos. You know you want to.

Have you been to the Rhine (any part of it)? Share your thoughts below in the comments section.

Places Around Maastricht: Grotten Zonneburg

Type of Place: Cave Tour
Location: Near the Buitengoed Slavante, Slavante 1, Maastricht. Reachable by bike, car, bus, boat, and foot.
Website

Grotten Zonneburg is the larger of the two marl caves (actually mines) in St. Pietersburg that you can tour with a guide and is one of my favorite places in Maastricht. We’ve visited it three times (twice this summer) and since it offers an English language tour more frequently than Grotten Noord I’m sure I’ll experience it again. The Zonneburg tour usually focuses on the history of the caves creation, WWII, and mushroom production. For stories about the invasion of Napoleon, Sint Peiters fort, and aquatic dinosaurs, try Grotten Noord which also offers an excellent touring experience (and one closer to Maastricht).

After having been through the caves multiple times I think what really draws me to the experience is the feeling of connecting a little to the people of Maastricht through history. There is something very intimate about descending into a labyrinth of tunnels continuously dug for hundreds of years by local hands.
 
The first tunnels were dug out in Roman times to make use of this pervasive building material. Later, the St. Jans church on the Vrijhof (and many other buildings besides) was built of marl from these very mines. People have hidden, been born, married, grown food, and stored wine in these spaces. No doubt some have died. In a sense, your tour guide is giving you a little history of Maastricht when he or she gives you the history of the caves themselves. All to the light of a few flickering gas lanterns several tens of meters below the surface.
 
You can learn more about Grotten Zonneburg through their website (warning: Flash) and the liberal use of Google Translate. English language tours are offered 7 days a week at 1:50 PM from July 5th to September 6th. During the months that Zonneburg isn’t offering English tours, Grotten Noord will be. The entrance fee is 4,90 for adults and 3,90 for children.

"I Am Not a Tourist" Expat Fair

I remember reading about Expatica’s I Am Not a Tourist Fair over a year ago while we were still making plans and being enchanted by the idea of there being a fair for people just like me. This was before I realized just how different things can be in that three hour distance between our home in Maastricht and the big city world of Amsterdam. Still, with this year’s fair on the horizon, I am seriously considering attending.

What is Being Offered
The Expat Fair appears to be mainly centered around introducing expats to the various vendors and nonprofit resources that exist to help ease our way into the country and culture of the Netherlands. There are several organizations whose websites I’ve used in the past for assistance and many, many more that I’ve never heard of. Certainly there seems to be a great deal of knowledge being brought together in a single place.

The website also implies that there will be classes & “entertainment sessions” offered as well. What those classes are, however, they do not say.

What I Expect
In all honesty, I’m a little jaded about how much groups located in Amsterdam can do for me, but it seems like a good opportunity to at least talk to some tax professionals without having to pay for introductory time. Classes might be interesting, I could use one on home bike repair, but most will probably be region specific.

I do hope that attending will give me the chance to meet a few new people; maybe even people who living in Limburg like me. Of course I won’t pass up the chance to promote our podcast a bit. Time to look up business card printers.

Episode 12 of Maastricht Minutiae

Welcome to another week of Maastricht Minutiae. Episode 12 is a little longer than usual (about 45 minutes) and was edited by yours truly instead of Dan, so if you have any complaints, you know who to send them too. Click Here to listen.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This week we talked about:

• Dan’s Parents’ Visit
• The Rhine Region in Germany between Koblenz and Bacharach.
• The Netherlands’ Museumkaart
• Museums in Amsterdam
• Touring the Red Light District
• Visiting Delft & Monster Stroopwafels
• Eating Indonesian Food
• Listener Questions

Have questions or comments? Send us a note via the form on the Contact Me page or talk about the podcast below in the Comments.

Preuvenemint 2009: Eatting Our Way Through Maastricht

Right up there with Maastricht’s Carnival, Queens Day in Amsterdam, and a pottery-oogling trip to Delft, Preuvenemint in Maastricht is a “Must Do (at least) Once” event in the Netherlands. This year was our first time to visit so we brought Dan’s parents along to share the experience.

Getting In
Preuvenemint in Maastricht is a yearly culinary event that runs during the last full weekend of August, creating a cap to the end of the vacation and summer season here in the Netherlands. This year that weekend was from August 27th to the 30th. On the weekdays, the Preuvenemint opened at 6 pm for dinner and ran late until about 2 am. On the weekends, the event opened earlier for lunch as well.

Like many large outdoor events, this culinary extravaganza is located on the Vrijhof. They actually began setting up the tents and fences a few days earlier, effectively hiding the square behind metal and plasticized canvas. My in-laws found this to be a little confusing; they didn’t realize that the Vrijhof is usually a wide open square. Still, it is the sort of event you can’t miss. A large crowd of visitors and locals attend the event every year too.

Getting Food

The Preuvenemint using special tickets instead of cash to pay for your food. Special booths are available at each of the entrances where you can purchase them for 1,80 euros a piece or in a booklet of 10. The cost is somewhat expensive depending on what food you order, but worth it for the experience. We found that drinks (beer & soda) were usually 1 ticket a piece and plates generally ran from 4-10 tickets. Snack food such as waffles and sate was usually 2-3 tickets. Many places allowed you to sit down, so the best course of action is to order your food and then pay with the tickets when the food arrives.
 
Who’s There
The vendors serving food are mostly local resturants, cafes and hotels; with several Brand beer tents (the same ones that I’ve seen at nearly every event I’ve attended in the Netherlands). Everything from street vendors to CoffeeLovers (a chain cafe) to 5-star hotels were hawking their wares so there seemed to be a little some for everyone. The food varied, but we mostly saw Dutch, French, and Indonesian fare with a couple of Japanese restaurants as well. Of course the other side of this event is advertising for the restaurants. They will serve you the best food than can muster under the circumstances (outdoors & no on-site kitchen) because they want you to come back.
 
There was constant music from the stage set up in front of the gazebo as well. We didn’t specifically check out the music schedule, but during our visits there was a great variety: big band music, Spanish, and 80s tunes, and no doubt some Dutch music as well (but not while we were there).
 
Our Experience
As a group, we mostly went for seafood, starting with oysters and our first taste of Dutch style herring. Yes, tasty on all accounts. We also tried some pork sate (kinda eh) and two forms of mussels. I still prefer steamed to Maastricht-style mussels (in sort of a cream sauce). If you purchased a beer at one of the beer tents, you could carry it around with you, but beverages purchased at a sit down spot need to be consumed while sitting. While we were concerned about the cost of beverages, it wasn’t really an issue.
 
If you attend in a group for the first time, I recommend you do what we did, and share dishes as multiple stops. This way everyone can try something new without duplicating plates. Your tickets will go farther and you’ll get more variety. There were many very nice sitting areas as well, so if you’ve been to Preuvenemint a couple of times, it is probably very nice to relax at one or two locations with a beer or some wine and just take in the experience.
 
Bottom Line
The bottom line is that the Preuvenemint is a tasty, if pricey event. I won’t take every dinner there because of the cost, but it was a fun change to our usual experience and the chance to try some new foods. Go with an open mind and a taste for something different, and you won’t leave disappointed.

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