Places Around Maastricht: Blanche Dael

Type of Place: Coffee (tea and chocolate) Store
Location: Wolfstraat 28; 6211 GN Maastricht
Website

One of the oldest coffee grinders in the Maastricht region, Blanche Dael is a charming shop filled with a wide variety of coffee, tea, and packaged treats that make unique gifts for visitors and a delicious cup of coffee for locals as well.  From the outside, the old-fashions wood trim, huge roaster, and scent of fresh coffee beans will pull  you inside. Once there, you’ll find yourself surrounded by a variety of interesting treats and gifts. They sell a special Maastricht coffee blend, that is very good, as well as the famous(?) “Druim vaan Mestreech” tea, which tastes like drinking a bouquet of flowers. The chocolate sold by the shop is tasty as well, although I don’t know if they make it themselves.

Blanche Dael coffee and tea is the premier “gift coffee” for Maastricht and you can also find it at the VVV and other specialty tourist shops; mostly the nice ones that don’t sell tacky “dutch-girl” wigs. If you want a taste of it, you can also visit Coffeelovers; Maastricht’s answer to Starbucks. I don’t personally like Coffeelovers much (they brew their coffee stronger than I like), but many people swear by them and it’s one of perhaps two places you can get an American size cup of coffee. I prefer my Blanche Dael brewed at home where I can control how strong my beverage is.

Places Around Maastricht: Wereldwinkel

Type of Place: Fair Trade store
Location: Brusselsestraat 7
Website

Today’s Places Around Maastricht shares with you my favorite place to buy coffee: Wereldwinkel. This small gift shop is just a few blocks from me near the Vrijthof and carries a variety of products produced in the developing world. In keeping with the tenets of Fair Trade, the producers receive fair compensation, allowing them to make a respectable living. The shop is filled with a variety of reasonably priced textiles, dishes, statues, and all sorts of other handmade odds and ends. If I had a place to hang the blue hammock in the window, I would seriously consider buying it.

Wereldwinkel is run significantly on volunteers; mostly older women who are friendly and tolerant of my crummy Dutch (a side perk is I actually feel comfortable trying out a few Dutch words there).

Wereldwinkel sells a small but varied selection of Fair Trade foodstuffs in the back of the shop, including the single-origins ground coffee that I like so well. Supporting Fair Trade in my coffee is so easy, that there is really not excuse not to and the brand sold here is much tastier than the Fair Trade or organic brands sold at Albert Heijns. The price is nearly the same too. In addition, I’m just a sucker for single-origins products. The earth the plants grow in has a significant effect on the flavor of the coffee.

Wereldwinkel is open Mondays through Friday from 1 pm to 5:30 pm and on Saturdays from 10 am to 5 pm. They are never open on Sundays.

Places Around Maastricht: Bonnefanten Museum

Type of Place: Art Museum
Location: Avenue Ceramique 250
Website

Unmissable along the banks of the Meuse as it flows through Maastricht is the silver tower of the Bonnefanten Museum. Inside is housed an every changing collection of art, both old and new. From here in the Netherlands and around the world. The “Old Masters” collection focuses on medival art from the Southern Netherlands, Maas region woodcarvings, and several Italian masters. Rounding this out is the Contemporary Art collection which includes an ever changing mix of artists from all over the world.

Temporary exhibits are the highlight of the Bonnefanten Museum and they will frequently have 3 or 4 special exhibits at any give time. In addition there is often a special installation in the top of the silver tower, and even their permanent collection gets changed up periodically; making return visits every so often worth your time. Currently the permanent collection is laid out for “Augenspiel”, an attempt to re-contextualize various pieces across traditional lines. The temporary exhibits are on Sidi El Karchi, Bas de Wit, Pierre Kemp, and The Invisible Color.

Art is naturally very subjective, but I’ve enjoyed the Bonnefanten Museum when I visit. The temporary exhibits in particular are frequently a great chance to see something a little different and often are very modern or abstract.  Sidi El Karchi’s beautiful, comic-like portraits are particularly worth going to see, especially when placed in contract to Bas de Wit’s grotesquely surreal works.

On the other hand, I did not enjoy the attempt by the “Augenspiel” exhibit to deconstruct the cultural and temporal context of the permanent collection. Personally I feel that art is strongest when viewed within its original cultural context and without that the viewer is simply left to flounder. The inclusion of booklets detailing each piece just added to the feeling that this reorganization is missing its mark.  Still, you will find some interesting works within; even if you don’t like the organization.

In addition to the museum, the Bonnefanten also has a small, but tasty cafe with outdoor seating within view of the river, which is nice during the summer. Live music events are often hosted there as well.  They accept the Museumkaart and if you plan on returning (or visiting other Dutch museums) frequently, I highly recommend you pick one up.

The Bonnefanten Museum is 8 euros for adults and 4 for children. They are open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:30 am to 5 pm and Mondays when there is a national holiday.

Image by andrebiazoti used via Creative Commons.

Places Around Maastricht: Reitz Friture

Type of Place: Friets Takeaway & Restaurant
Location: Markt Square
Website

Fries. Chips. Friets. Patat. No matter what you call them, potatoes cut into sticks and fried up are popular the world over. The Netherlands, and certainly Maastricht close to the Belgian border were they apparently have an extra special love for friets, is no exception. With 101 years of business under their belts, Reitz always seem like a popular place to get a snack. It is with that in mind, as well as our desire for a cheap lunch alternative, that Dan & I ducked inside to try out a cone-full of their particular fare.

I think that friets are one of those foods that is half about the experience of eating them; like a starchy version of shellfish. These friets are served in a paper cone wrapped around warm fries with a tiny ‘friet fork’ to help you get at your messy meal.

Reitz also serves their friets with a wide variety of flavors from the boring, American-style “with salt” to the classic Dutch mayonnaise dollop to even odder choices like zuurvlees (literally ‘sour meat’; its Limburgish). Dan tried the pindakaas (peanut butter sauce) variation and I opted for zuurvlees and mayo. The fries were fresh and hot and the flavorings tasty. A small size would have been enough for the two of us, but if you have a big appetite they also offer a large. We did find that we should have eaten faster as the toppings soak into the friets quickly and the bottom half of each cone turned into a soggy mess. Fortunately I was full by then, so it wasn’t a big deal.

Reitz also has a restaurant in the back, but we have not visited it yet. And if you chose to eat your fries at McDonalds next door, shame on you.

Places Around Maastricht: Aldi

Type of Place: Grocery Store
Location: several; Most central is at Plein 1992 25; 6221 JP Maastricht
Website

Maastricht has lots of places you can buy food, but there are times when you need to something to eat and you don’t have a lot to spend. Aldi is a small, discount grocery store available in many cities throughout the Netherlands. Unlike larger chains like Jumbo and Albert Heijns, Aldi doesn’t have its own brand and products are simply shelved in their packaging boxes. But if you can get around the cut-rate look of the stores, the deals inside are well worth your time.

I find the best way to treat Aldi is to learn what products you like and then use the store to supplement your regular grocery shopping. Personally I purchase paper products, vegetables, and dairy there, but only rarely pick up fruit and never get the lunch meats. Their produce can be very hit and miss and while you can work around that with a bag of carrots; hand fruit needs to be fresh or you’re just wasting money. I can’t stand the spaghetti they have in stock either; its too thick. On the other hand, their frozen pizza is half the price of similar pizzas at AH and taste nearly as good as the take-away stuff from the restaurant downstairs, so we always buy frozen pizzas there if we need a quick dinner. After shopping Aldi, I take advantage of the greater variety at my local Albert Heijn to fill in the rest of my grocery needs.

In addition to food, Aldi frequently has a mix of non-food products ranging from shirts or gardening goods to laptops. I presume this is overstock from some store or another and occasionally worth a look. As with the food, what you buy will be determined by the quality you need and whether or not you can overlook the lack of variety that a discount shop has.

Logo is (c) Aldi

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