Maastricht: Indulging in Belgium in the Netherlands

River Maas, Maastricht, the Netherlands

Last Updated on 8th January 2019 by Sarah and Justin

There is a dispute in the Netherlands over what is its oldest city. Some say Maastricht; some say Nijmegen. Luckily we visited both! Maastricht first…

Position

Maastricht is located in the southern part of the Netherlands, in a part of the country that doesn’t seem like it should belong to the Netherlands at all given how it’s wedged between Germany and Belgium (right next to the Belgian border).
Maastricht, the Netherlands

Of course, Justin ran to Belgium. Because.
Belgian border in the Netherlands

Accommodations

We stayed in a great hotel – Townhouse Design Hotel. We’ve found it’s nice to alternate between Airbnb apartments and hotels. This one had a nice big area to hang out in, a gym so we could get some much-needed real exercise, and free soup! We had a great view of the street from our balcony and one of our favorite buildings was down the block.
View down Sint Maartenslaan, Maastricht, the Netherlands

Maastricht, the Netherlands

Euroscoop Maastricht, the Netherlands

The River Maas

The River Maas runs through Maastricht, and there are several bridges connecting the two sides. We crossed them many times.
River Maas, Maastricht, the Netherlands

River Maas, Maastricht, the Netherlands

River Maas, Maastricht, the Netherlands

The rest of the city is beautiful and feels old and, admittedly, a bit Belgian.
Maastricht Town Hall, the Netherlands

Sint Janskerk and Basiliek van Sint Servaas, Maastricht, the Netherlands

Basiliek van Sint Servaas in Maastricht

Pieke oet de Stokstraot, Maastricht, the Netherlands

Eats and Drinks

  • The aforementioned free soup at our hotel made for good snacking everyday.
  • Usually when we travel to new places we don’t like to a restaurant more than once. But we loved De Gouverneur so much – and it had such an extensive beer list – that we broke our rule and went twice. They had an endlessly long beer bible, although Sarah didn’t even have to look through it upon arrival because they had her favorite beer on tap: Kasteel Rouge. Their bitterballen were a bit different from the ones we’d had previously, but quite good. But the main event was their meatballs and frites. Just delicious.

Sarah enjoying Kasteel Rouge, De Gouverneur, Maastricht, the Netherlands

Meatballs and frites, De Gouverneur, Maastricht, the Netherlands

Borrelplank, De Gouverneur, Maastricht, the Netherlands

5 thoughts on “Maastricht: Indulging in Belgium in the Netherlands

  1. Stefan Sommerfield says:

    You’re killing me with the food descriptions and pictures–they are too great. You are also causing a complete rethinking of our travel plans for the summer and fall next year. Seriously considering an in depth Netherlands, Belgian tour outside of the major cities we have been in already; a Danube river cruise with time in Prague and Budapest as a wrap; and/or decent time on some Greek Islands (which I know we will want to do after we see Heraklion, Corfu, and Santorini next month.

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