Regional Resources: The Value of Variety

This article was original published at Maastricht Region: to Live.

There are many types of online resources for expats today, but none are so valuable as the ones written specifically for your niche; that special twist that enables you to find and connect with the resource in the first place. When I first moved to Maastricht, quality regional resources were slim. Fortunately shortly afterwards the city began a bit of a revival, and we saw a handful of quality regional resources spring up. Hopefully we’ll see good resources and services continue to flourish as the region explores its relationship with the international community and puts its best foot forward for 2018.

One of the oldest and best was Crossroads Magazine, owned and operated by the European Journalism Centre. Sadly they had to shutter the project approximately a month ago due to a lack of funding, despite their 10 years of service. Crossroads Magazine provided an excellent look into the events, culture, and history of Maastricht itself through the eyes of representatives of the city and the words of fellow expatriates, in addition to creating the first bank of resource links to language learning resources, international businesses, schools, and more. For writers, the magazine offered many of us our first chance to work with an editor and be read on a wider basis. While the website is not currently updating, you can still visit to read the various articles and see the resource links. If you want to help us restore Crossroads, please show your support and Sign Our Petition.

Another older resource, The Observant, is a niche resource for our local university students. Published weekly in print and on the web, it provides a variety of articles in Dutch and English as well as event listings. It is created by students of Maastricht University.

City-sponsored regional resources are some what newer, but have the benefit of providing a wide base of information about the basics of setting up life in Maastricht and the surrounding area. As one of the highlighted resources fromMaastricht’s International Help Desk, Maastricht Region provides help and resources on work, housing, and other practical matters. Plus you get to hear from Sueli and I every week. The Expat Guide Holland, owned and operated by Brainport in Eindhoven, is also an excellent source of general information and a partial business listing for a variety of services.

Finally we’ve been able to get a bit of a personal perspective from a handful of local expat bloggers. While I enjoy reading expat bloggers from all over the Netherlands, it’s extra special to see what other’s are thinking in your area. If you’re curious try these:

- Random Walks in the Low Countries

- In Our Life: The Williems 3 Go Dutch

- Maastricht Minutiae (That’s me)

- If you have more for this list, please let me know.

As wonderful as this flourishing of resources is for us internet-going expats in Maastricht, the loss of Crossroads leaves a cultural perspective-sized hole in what was shaping up to be a well-rounded variety of references and perspective. Hopefully the city of Maastricht and other local funding bodies will see this too and find a way to fund the project. If you’d like to encourage them, please sign the Support Municipal Funding for Crossroad’s Magazine petition. (This petition was created by myself and other interested individuals. My opinion should not be construed as that of Maastricht Region Branding Foundation.)

 

Sign the Friends of Crossroads Petition

If you’ve a fan of Crossroads Magazine, whether you live in Maastricht or abroad, please take a moment and sign our petition.

I want to show the city council’s Council on Economic and Social Affairs that 1) Crossroads is well loved and beneficial to a significant population in the region, and 2) the magazine promotes international awareness of the region and culture. As the city seeks Cultural Capital status in 2018 and attempts to display it’s unique position in the EU, Crossroads Magazine is a project they should be proud of and support financially.

There are two ways to sign the petition.

1) Print out this linked document, read, sign, and mail it to me. If you can get more signatures, the more the merrier. But print signatures are probably more effective. Email me for my address.

2) Sign our digital petition by clicking here.

We need a minimum of 300 signatures to get noticed, and preferably many more so we can show support from the voting population as well as those of us who cannot vote locally yet. I also hope to show this petition to VIA2018 and any other major funding body in the region who has an interest in expats and the image/quality of life in Maastricht.

Help Out

Honestly I need all the help I can get, so please share the petition link far and wide.

If you want to collect physical signatures, please print out the petition and share it with your friends and colleagues.

If you want to express your concern in your own words, email the city council and the Council on Economic and Social Affairs yourself. You can find contact information for the head of the committee here, and a general email and mailing address here.

Join the LinkedIn Group

Finally please come by the LinkedIn group, join up and start sharing what you’re doing in support of Crossroads Magazine.

MaasMarathon 5K: Vise at a Run

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

Last Sunday I ran in my very first 5K, one of the many events at the MaasMarathon held in the Belgian town of Vise, a French-speaking town just over the boarder. We placed well for a first time out, 71 out of 228 runners, and while it was hard work, it was lots of fun.

The MaasMarathon started at 9:00 am with no fewer than 700 participants, not including people running the half marathon, 10K, and 5K. Once the marathoners were on their way, my running partner and I settled in behind the starting line for our 9:30 am start. I was filled with nervous energy, but it was exciting to finally be trying a footrace. When the 5K started, we got up to speed very quickly and then struggled a bit over uphill sections at both the beginning and end of the race. Fortunately we survived and had enough fun that I’ll be doing it again!

Of course running in a mob of people may not be the best way to see Vise for the first time. Besides hosting the occasional marathon, Vise has a few museums and cathedrals, including the church of Saints-Martin-et-Hadelin which was built before 780 AD. Archaeology fans may want to visit the Museum of Regional History and Archaeology located in the Town Hall. For fans of firearms and crossbows, Vise hosts three “shooting” guilds, which maintain an irregularly open museum (Saterdays). Enjoy a relaxing wander about town and you could probably make a day of it.

Having seen a quick glance, I’d like to go back and check out the small park placed in the middle of Muese river which is accessible by a low bridge. We saw it on the run, but didn’t get the chance to pass through. Plus the “victory” eclair we bought in Vise says we have to go back some day for another one. Yum.

My next 5K will probably be the Maastricht Mooiste held here at home June 12th.

 

Happy Queen’s Day 2011

For those of you accustom to having a royal family, this has been a pretty cool weekend with two royal events in two countries in one weekend. As someone who finds the idea of having a queen kind of weird, Queen’s Day at least gives me an excuse to enjoy a bit of shopping in the warm and wonderful spring weekend. Shopping is a great way to celebrate a birthday.

The best part of Queen’s Day for me is the chance to wander through the vrijmarkt, a giant flea market where anyone can lay out a banket and sell second-hand things that have been cluttering up their homes. I had intended to spread out a blanket myself, but honestly the timing is all off for me and I got busy with other things until it was too late. In the mean time, Dan & I took a stroll through the busy stadpark to see what other’s had to offer. The market is great for children’s toys and products, but you can also pick through quite a bit of clothing and all the knick-knacks you can imagine. This year there seemed to be more people selling original jewelry as well. I love handmade things.

We ended up purchasing a turquoise beaded necklace and matching bracelet (I’ve been coveting my mother’s for years), and a used bike, which we hoped would replace my current broken one. The necklace is still in one piece, but the bike unfortunately slipped its gears not 10 minutes after we bought the damn thing. It clearly needs a tune-up, so we’ve back to square one as far as bike commuting goes. We only paid 45 euros through, so I’m going to buy a book on bike repair and make it my experimental bicycle. We should have been more careful when checking it over I guess.

The Maastricht Viert musical celebration was a much bigger deal this year than last, including a couple big (in the Netherlands) bands and several smaller ones. Security was also much tighter with fencing up around the Viert area and bag checks at the gate for alcohol and drugs. It probably made for a calmer event over all, but I imagine the profit to be had selling beer to people who might otherwise have BYOB also played a part in their decision.

Musically the bands were pretty eclectic.  While we were there the main stage was holding a Big Band playing swing music to the people relaxing on the grass. We caught the end of a set from Viatora, a folk metal band (we thought they sounded celtic), on the smaller stage as well. With the inclusion of a couple traditional instruments, their music was actually pretty good. Better than we expected for the small stage at a free event in Maastricht anyway. Wish we had come early and caught more of their show, because the next group up was ok, but clearly still amateurs.

A couple of beers later, Dan and I made our way home with our prizes and a bit of a tan. Good day.

You’ll Have to Travel for Tulips

This article was original published at Maastricht Region: to Live.

Spring time means tulip time and while the Maastricht Region is beautiful in the spring, you’ll have to travel north to get a real taste of the Dutch tulip fields. This year we did so in order to show off the famous tulip fields and the Keukenhof to my parents who were visiting for a week from the United States.

The best way to reach the Keukenhof from the Maastricht region is to take a train to Leiden (or Den Haag) where you can catch a bus the rest of the way to the garden. The train ride costs about 46 euros round trip and a combo Keukenhof/Bus ticket is approximately 21 euros. It’s a long trip, about 3 hours one way plus the bus, so we chose to spend the night in Haarlem (a bit further north), but you can make a day of it if you like. The gardens are lovely and popular, especially since you can only visit for a limited time each year. The fields of blooming flowers are also impressive and colorful. This year the tulips were nearly all open outside in the flower beds last week, so if you want to visit, do it soon. The Keukenhof is best if you can catch the peak of the season.

If you want to explore the fields themselves, biking is an excellent way to do so. You can usually take your own bike on the train for an additional 12 euros/bike (don’t try this during rush hour), but you can also rent a bike when you get there. Leiden has all the usual bike shops or you can rent a bicycle at the Keukenhof entrance. Some people wander the gardens and bike on the same day, but honestly my feet and legs had given out after a day in the garden, so we haven’t tried biking the fields yet.

Of course tulips aren’t everything. Maastricht’s green spaces are particularly beautiful this time of year and the fine weather we’ve been having is perfect for walks or bike rides in green spaces. Try taking the bike paths or a walk in the woods to enjoy my favorite season in the Netherlands. Or if you don’t want to self-propel, try a river cruise on the Meuse and see the beautiful fields and landscape of the region. Enjoy the sun!

 

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