Visiting the VVV

This article was originally posted at Maastricht Region: to Live.

One of my first stops in any town in the Netherlands is the VVV, the regular tourism shop in nearly every settlement of size with something tourists might want to see. Services vary, but you can often find brochures for local and regional sites, sometimes pick up a tour, or even book a hotel (if you happen to be traveling the old-fashion way). Even after two years in Maastricht I still stop in.

The primary purpose of VVV shop (sometimes located in larger stores, sometimes standalone), is naturally to provide visitors with information about the fair city they find themselves in. To this end, there is an information booth and lots of free and paid literature available. Most of the literature is in Dutch, but occasionally you can find some in English. Capitool Travel Guides’ Maastricht & South Limburg carried at the VVV in Maastricht is available in both languages and provides a great overview for visitors and new residents. Sometimes tours can be paid for or start at the VVV, such as the city tour in Aachen.

A second reason you might check out the local VVV is to purchase products from the region. While Maastricht has a variety of excellent stores that can fill all of your touristy gift needs, the VVV sells some local products and knick-knacks with the Maastricht star emblazoned on them if you don’t have the time to look elsewhere. And if they don’t have what you’re looking for, they can certainly help you find it.

A less common, but still helpful, way to use the VVV is for residents to visit occasionally for answers to questions about their own city.  Before our first Carnaval, I stopped in and the staff was able to provide me with an itinerary of activities for the holiday that I had been unable to find on my own. They were equally helpful when I needed to find a post office after my regular postal location shut down. That service combined with postings for musical events and the “minicard” coupon stand gives me a good reason to stop in every month or so, just to stay in touch with the going-ons of the city.

The VVV in most towns is near the train station, but if that is not the case you can usually find it in the major tourist areas. If you visit Maastricht, visit the Dinghuis on Grootstraat for your VVV needs.

Year Three of Living the Expat Life

I apologize for the extended silence here on Maastricht Minutiae. I had intended to blog over my holidays but ultimately ended up being too busy with family, reading, and simply being home to keep up with the blog. I’ve been struggling for a while now with life as an expat and I think it’s telling that while last year returning to Maastricht felt like coming home, this year it felt like going away.

So year three. Dan and I will have lived in the Netherlands for two years come March and while I do think the good out weighs the bad, we’re pretty sure that this is our last year. I’m ready to be gainfully employed as an archivist, digital and otherwise, and Dan’s current contract will be wrapping up so it’s a good time for us to make a move. I like Maastricht a lot, but apparently not enough. And I have really mixed feelings about leaving whether it be to move back to the United States (the most likely scenario) or to the United Kingdom (which is appealing but trickier). Still, I do believe it will be the right decision for our careers (and hobbies) and I’m excited about the prospect of having a professional office job again.

Of course in the mean time I’m already thinking about all the things we haven’t done or need to do in the coming year before leaving. And already lamenting the things we’ll lose by moving. Among other things, I’m hoping to grow the writing and copyright research aspects of my freelance business while shrinking the web design a bit. I’m still hopeful that I can find some part-time or full-time “day job” for our remaining time here since I think an office will be good for my mental health. The steady income is nice too of course. I’ve started picking up more crafting projects in the evenings and I intend to become more involved with the International Women’s Club.

In short, I still want to make this year as enjoyable and productive as possible. The only thing worse than indecision is waiting around for something big to happen.

What this means for Maastricht Minutiae is that while I am going to start writing regularly again, I’m also going to decrease my posts to twice a week rather than the three I’ve been trying to maintain. I’ll be going back into the archive to cross post the articles I wrote for Maastricht Region as well, so I’m sure those will pop up in your RSS readers soon.

To sort of wrap up my blog, I’m considering putting some of the material together into a book; maybe a “Places Around Maastricht” guide of the best spots from my perspective. It’s just an idea for now and I won’t be taking the blog off-line, but a book would make a nice capper to the work I’ve done here.