Or, more accurately, the St. Servaas church, because that is what we mostly saw, and where I took all my photos, when we were in Maastricht.

My impression of the church… well, easy: it’s a stunning bit of architecture. Part Romanesque, part Gothic, very colourful, very well-decorated… yes, I was impressed. And as this series of photos shows, a lot of thought and effort has been put into the lighting of various statues (making life for a photographer nice ‘n’ easy!).

So as I was saying, these statues work out so well I think this makes for a nice series that shows the “best” of the St. Servaas. Then, below the fold, a few more interesting photos that don’t fit that “theme”.

And to get the now-usual photographic nerdiness out of the way; these photos were taken with my “usual” (as in, if I don’t know what to expect, don’t want to think, or feel I will get a lot of different situations, I will take that lens) walkabout lens, the 16-80 mm.

That is a statue just outside the church, in the ambulatory.

St. Anthony of Padua, if my memory serves me well

And here I liked the visual illusion of Jesus looking at the two little lights at his feet (it doesn’t work all that well in the photo, couldn’t get all the angles to work):

None too small

Then there was some nice “interplay” between the stained glass windows and the works of art beneath them. Here the icon just positively jumps out at you…

And here the effect on the statue is simply amazing!

Finally, this is simply the grave of St Servaas (died 384 AD). Atmospheric.

Grave of St Servaas

Below the fold two more photos of interesting stuff!

This first one is interesting for the materials used to make these reliquaries. It gives you a very good idea of what was considered exotic, weird, fascinating, in these days (14th century AD). The egg on the left is of a casuaris; the standing reliquary on the right is made from coconut; and hanging are two ostrich eggs! Imagine for instance the wonder that would surround stories of birds as big as a man, that can run as fast as a horse, when all you see around you are sparrows, blackbirds, and maybe the odd falcon.

Exotic reliquaries

My favourite architectural period is Gothic. Aside from the architecture I think also sculpture, or maybe better… decoration? from that period is great. Often I find it is just so funny – and funny is not a word usually associated with the Middle Ages. Walking around a gothic church, looking at the statues, you will often find they are made to look like charicatures (I don’t have an example at hand though ).

This, the front of another reliquary, reads like a 13th (?)-century comic book – and was likely intended to be read like that, given “nobody” could read! – and has Monty Pythonesque qualities.

At the bottom there is the 3D depiction of what I imagine is a saint – it may well be St Servaas himself. He is positively sticking out of the front of that piece of metal; and he might as well because he’s trying to look at what is going on above his head!

So, in the middle are two angels who are helping him out a bit, saying, ah, there you are, yes, we are talking to you, you need to pay attention; and this is what you should be looking at – and they both helpfully point their fingers up.

Then, at the top, God simply sticks his hand down from above, holding a crown, as if to say, here, take this (and don’t drop it). Very matter-of-fact, understated… and it so looks like Monty Python to me!

In short, I love this depiction, it’s great great great!

A Gothic graphic novel of one page

Foot bridge in Maastricht

As a quick disclosure, I help maintain the Events page on my.Mtricht.com.

My.Mtricht.com is a ning-based social networking site designed to bring together locals, expats, and anyone else who lives, works, or simply likes to know more about Maastricht. Just like other social network sites, you can sign up, make friends, chat on the forums, upload your own media, and even maintain a blog. The website is maintained primarily in English and users are encouraged to post in English to make the website as accessible as possible. If you are looking for an activity in or near Maastricht, the events page attempts to include a comprehensive list and also list of the events in English; one of the weaknesses of most other events websites for this area.

In addition to My.Mitricht.com, you can find more factually based information about Maastricht at the sister site: Mtricht.com. This part of this website is dedicated to teaching you about Maastricht, its region, and its history. You can read here about some of the landmarks of Maastricht or check out the city’s stats. Weekly, the founder of the website sends out a newsletter about Maastricht and/or about activities on the website.

How You Can Help
Mtricht.com and My.Mtricht.com are still young websites and they need your help to make them a truly wonderful resource. I encourage you to sign up on the website and proactively start posting about things that interest you, you have questions about, or just tell us about yourself. The community that is starting to grow there is friendly.

You can also contribute to the website by uploading events that you or someone else has organized. These events don’t have to be in English, but we do ask you to post about them in English so that people can decide whether or not to attend. I know there are many Dutch-language activities that can be accessible even if you do not speak the language or have only a rudimentary grasp on it.

Finally, Mtricht.com is looking to increase the information it provides. Please contact the website founder if you would like to write an article or otherwise contribute to the mass of information found here.

I look forward to “meeting” you at My.Mtricht.com. Feels free to friend me by clicking here to sign up or clicking the big green button on the right hand side.

And if you’re a twitter fan, download your unofficial my.Mtricht.com Twitter Background here.

This blog article is dedicated to NaNoWriMo 2009. Please sponsor me and my goal of write 50,000 words by making a donation to the Office of Letters & Light.

Dibujos de un viaje a Holanda

Yesterday was the 11^th of the 11^th, a noteworthy date on two counts. At 11:11 AM, festivities started in our region to prepare for next spring’s carnival. Some people take time off to celebrate and drink, anticipating the big spring parade with all the partying.

Carnaval Celebrations in Maastricht

The 11^th of the 11^th is also a day off in Belgium, since they celebrate the cease fire at the end of a particularly brutal battle in 1917, during the first World War.

What a contrast! We’re glad that we don’t need a parade and parties to experience the true joy of knowing God. And it’s good to know that we have the victory in Christ, whatever battles we may face.

Thomson Airways Boeing 757-28A WL G-OOBA (msn 32446) MST, originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

Copyright Photo: Bjorn van der Velpen.

Please click on photo or link below for full view, information, prints for sale and other photos:

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The Maastricht train station is such an important landmark that I probably should have written about it first. Unless you come by car, the train station will probably be your first and last impression of Maastricht. Fortunately, it cuts quite the memorable figure from its centuries-old stone construction to its brilliant stain glass windows. In addition to the station itself, there is also a bus station, mini-Albert Heijns, café, bookstore, and information desks for both the trains and buses.

Of course a train station is really only as good as the service it provides and, like most places in the Netherlands, the Maastricht station is more than adequate. We can typically show up 10 minutes before our train arrives, pick up tickets, and be settled into our seats with a bit of time to spare. There are only 8 tracks and they are all handicap accessible, so it is unlikely that you’ll miss a quick switch over. Outside is the main bus station with easy to read signs and both free (open) and paid (protected at Fietspecialist “Aon De Stasie”) bike parks.

Local train entering the station.

Illustration by Manos Symeonakis

Tony Blair must be getting used to rejection by now. He left office in 2007 unloved and unwanted after 10 years as British prime minister. His attempt to win back some respectability as an international statesman by becoming a Middle East envoy has been a damp squib. And now his voyage to become the Europe’s first president appears to have foundered on the EU’s perennial rock of uncertainty.

In hushed tones and behind closed doors, European leaders last week seemed to reject the idea of Blair being appointed president of the European Council, a position created by the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty by all 27 EU member states.

Blair has some characteristics that would make him a suitable candidate for the role (charisma, valuable political experience, good communication skills, the ability to lead and diplomatic presence) but for many these are outweighed by the baggage he would bring with him (the Iraq War, his close ties to George W. Bush, his unpopularity in his own country, a pending investigation into whether he lied to his people and parliament and a fraught relationship with the EU in the past).

The fallout from the Iraq War is the biggest elephant in the room blocking Blair’s path to the presidency. The decision to hitch his wagon to George W. Bush’s lone star is something Europeans cannot overlook easily. But given the chance, Blair would probably explain that as the British prime minister, he had to make a decision – a very wrong one as it turned out – about whether to take part in a war. Had he been the prime minister of Belgium or Luxembourg, for example, perhaps his toughest foreign policy choice would have been what color bunting to get out when dignitaries visit from abroad.

Blair might even argue that having been through such a maelstrom and suffered the political consequences of his choices, he has the ideal experience to now be a unifying rather than a divisive figure. But even this does not dispel the dark cloud of mendacity that hangs over him. The Chilcot inquiry into Britain’s participation in the Iraq War will hopefully establish beyond doubt what Blair knew and what he told MPs and the public before committing troops to that conflict. The fact he’s due to face such an investigation appears to undermine his bid to become EU president. To risk having the first person in such a high-profile role publicly exposed as a liar would damage the Union. Of course, there would be more than a hint of hypocrisy in the air if he is rejected on this basis alone: Few of the 27 leaders who decide who fills the role are paragons of virtue themselves – any group that has Silvio Berlusconi as one of its most prominent decision-makers can hardly claim the moral high ground.

Perhaps that’s why some of them decided to suddenly create new criteria for any presidential candidate: his country would have to be a member of the eurozone and part of the Schengen Agreement – Britain is neither. If the EU’s aim is to appoint the best person for the job, then this shifting of the goalposts is preposterous. Theoretically, the EU president should be someone that’s transnational, not national, federal, not feudal. If he or she subscribes to the European project, then their homeland’s policy should be irrelevant.

Of course, Blair’s critics would argue that he’s always been at loggerheads with the Union, typified by his stance in 2003 in the buildup to the Iraq War, which was widely interpreted as an effort to split the bloc. However, Blair has engaged with the EU in more constructive ways as well. One of his first acts after being voted into power in 1997 was to abolish Britain’s opt-out of the Maastricht Treaty’s Social Protocol. He was also one of the proponents in 1998 of giving the EU a role in defense policy and was a champion of the bloc’s enlargement. He was the first British prime minister to put the UK’s budget rebate up for discussion in 2005, when he urged member states to reform the Common Agricultural Policy and cut the extensive waste and laziness that it leads to, as we are well aware of in Greece.

In June of that year, Blair stood before the members of the European Parliament and set out a vision for a less bureaucratic, more liberal and modern Europe. “The people of Europe are speaking to us,” he said of citizens’ waning interest in the EU. “They are posing the questions. They want our leadership. It is time we gave it to them.” More than four years on, that leadership is still absent and, as the turnout in June’s European Parliament elections indicated, interest in the EU is flimsy. These are issues that, theoretically, a European president could address.

The role has been created so that someone can preside over the European Council – the regular summits between the 27 heads of government – and coordinate its work. According to the Lisbon Treaty, the president should also “ensure the external representation of the Union on issues concerning its common foreign and security policy.”

Yet, what we have seen over the last couple of weeks is a climb down from this position. The message from Brussels last week was that it would be preferable for the president to come from one of the smaller member states, that he or she should be able to strengthen Europe from within, not necessarily give it a presence on the world stage, and be willing to play second fiddle to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the 27 leaders.

“There is an argument that a political star as a president of the EU would lead to trouble with the president of the Commission and other leaders,” Robert Goebbels, the Luxembourg MEP who has launched a petition to stop Blair from being considered for the job, told Athens Plus.

It would be one of the EU’s more quixotic moments should it create an opening for a figurehead who could use diplomatic and communication skills to promote the Union to an increasingly apathetic public and give it a greater presence on the global stage only to then shackle him or her for fear of upsetting internal balances.

As the Dutch daily De Volkskrant put it in a recent headline: “Europe chooses: chief or messenger boy.” Given some of the names that have been mentioned as alternatives to Blair – Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, former Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Tapio Lipponen, former Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel, former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga – it seems the EU has decided there are too many indians to have a chief.

Presumably some of these politicians, if not all, are who The Economist had in mind when it referred to “the usual Europygmies.” Maybe, it’s a harsh assessment of men and women who are capable politicians in their domains, although hardly singular figures, but it underlines the challenge the EU now faces in trying to select someone to fulfill a role whose purpose remains unclear and undefined.

At least something is much clearer now: rejecting Blair was the easy part, too easy perhaps.

This commentary was written by Nick Malkoutzis and first appeared in Athens Plus on November 6, 2009.

Fair warning: Some links in this post may be to violent images.

People viewing the exhibit.

A taste of the exhibition.

The tour guide discusses the images of Olympic divers.

Photo of the Year 2008

Type of Place: Art & Cultural Events Venue
Location: Lage Kanaaldijk 112-113; 6212NA Maastricht
Website

On the edge of Maastricht the imposing and altogether unexpected Art Industry Nature Society Innovation (AINSI) building poses as the factory building it use to be. Although it has only been open for use for about a year, many artistic and cultural events are held there, making it an important location to keep on your radar.

The AINSI building is rented out to independent organizations and groups to host their cultural and artistic events. I’ve attended two events there. The first was a community fair, which was mostly held outside, and the second was Pecha Cucha, which was held in their theater/lecture hall. The lounge space on the first floor is also very nice with non-matching antique furniture and strange machines left over from the building’s previous cement making purpose. The building is not being completely utilized yet, but I imagine more space and rooms with be opened up. There is also a little office space in the AINSI building; for example the Maastricht Region organization keeps an office there.

I find the grungy, factory style of the AINSI building to be very appealing for a variety of casual and more formal, artistic events and I’m generally happy to head down for a large enough activity. The building’s value as a venue is unfortunately hampered by the lack of public transportation (Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either). While the distance isn’t bad by bike, maybe 15 minutes from the Vrijthof and about 30 minutes from my home, it is a bit far to walk. If you want to attend an evening event, I recommend trying to find a carpool.

The AINSI building is very near the Grotten Zonneburg, so I hope Maastricht or someone starts running a bus out this direction soon. It would be a pity to miss one of the events held here because of something as common as a thunderstorm.

Hold me
Like the river Jordan
And I will then say to thee
You are my friend

Carry me
Like you are my brother
Love me like a mother
Will you be there?

Lead me
Love me and feed me
Kiss me and free me
I will feel blessed

Hold me
Lay your head lowly
Softly then boldly
Carry me there

Lift me
Lift me up slowly
Carry me boldly
Show me you care

Need me
Love me and feed me
Kiss me and free me
I will feel blessed

Hold me
Lay lour head lowly
Softly then boldly
Carry me there

In our darkest hour
In my deepest despair
Will you still care?
Will you be there?
In my trials
And my tribulations
Through our doubts
And frustrations
In my violence
In my turbulence
Through my fear
And my confessions
In my anguish and my pain
Through my joy and my sorrow
In the promise of another tomorrow
I’ll never let you part
For you’re always in my heart.

Thank U

The Maastricht Minutiae Podcast, episode 15, is ready for download. We even managed to do it on time this week. The majority of our discussion this week is about expat issues, so I hope you enjoy it. Click here to listen to episode 15, or download it using your favorite podcatcher.

This week we chat about:

- Expatica’s “I am not a tourist” expat fair

- The Jazz Promenade event in Maastrichtr

Also, check out my post about the Expat Fair from last week for links to some of the people we spoke to. Do you have questions or comments for the podcast? Please feel free to e-mail them to me at maastrichtminutiae@gmail.com or fill out the contact me form.

Is there such a thing as being European and how does that sense of identity compare with your sense of national identity?

28 November 2009  tot en met 3 Januari 2010 Meer info

Rincones de Maastricht

Maastricht es una de las ciudades más curiosas y bonitas de Holanda. Hace unos días tuve la oportunidad de volver allí tras casi un año de la primera visita. La excusa era la misma: un partido de baloncesto, y disfruté, junto con Lidia, de un estupendo día en la ciudad, esta vez mucho más animada que la última vez ya que las tiendas estaban abiertas, y eso en Holanda es sinónimo de gente en la calle.

Maastricht es una ciudad pequeña y muy antigua, sus calles en el centro son encantadoras, y cuenta incluso con los restos de unas termas romanas. El monumento más conocido es el ayuntamiento, en pleno centro de la ciudad, situado en el medio de una enorme plaza. El edificio es impresionante, una mole de piedra formando un cuadrado en medio de una explanada. Es sin duda el símbolo de la ciudad.

Puente sobre el Mosa

Pero también hay otros lugares que merece la pena visitar, como el rio y alguno de los puentes que lo cruzan y que unen un lado de la ciudad con el otro. El ir y venir de las personas desde las tiendas a las zonas residenciales ayuda también a dar un poco de color a estas construcciones de piedra sobre el rio Mosa.

Interior de una antigua iglesia, utilizada como librería

Rincones especiales

Pero uno de los rincones más especiales de Maastricht es una librería situada dentro de una iglesia. Ya la conocía y era uno de los lugares que en esta visita no podían faltar. Es un lugar ideal para pasar un rato entre libros, hojeándolos sin darle mucha importancia al tiempo. Tomando un café al final de la misma mientras se disfruta del ambiente relajado y del olor a libro nuevo mezclado con la piedra antigua del edificio. Es un lugar especial, situado en pleno centro de la ciudad y al que no se puede dejar de ir, aunque no se compre nada.

Capital de la provincia de Limburgo, situada en el sudeste de los Países Bajos entre Bélgica y Alemania y entre los márgenes del rio Mosa, Maastricht es conocida mundialmente por el tratado que lleva su nombre y que dio paso al origen de la Unión Europea. Su nombre proviene del latín, Trajectum Ad Mosam, algo así como “Paso por el Mosa” y corresponde a uno de los puentes de la ciudad construido en la época de César Augusto.

Maastricht destaca por su oferta culinaria. Si bien, la gastronomía no es una ciencia en la que los neerlandeses destaquen, a los habitantes de esta ciudad se los podría calificar de borgoñeses. Existe una gran variedad de restaurantes para todos los gustos y bolsillos con una carta muy variada; algunas de las especialidades de la comarca son: las fresas, el queso de Rommedoe, diferentes marcas de cervezas (no podían faltar en este país) y vinos como el Apostelhoeve y el Fromberg.

Para los sibaritas o, sencillamente, para todos aquellos que tengan curiosidad por conocer nuevas formas de cocinar, a finales de Agosto se celebra el Preuvenemint. Se trata de una feria culinaria conocida a nivel internacional que se celebra en la plaza del Vrijthof. La entrada es gratuita y se puede disfrutar de un ambiente relajado degustando diferentes especialidades de todo el mundo al mismo tiempo que se disfruta de una variada oferta musical. Para hacer la cata se necesitan unos vales llamados preuvenelappe que este año costaban 1,5 euros la unidad y, para que os hagáis una idea, una sencilla “tapa” (bocadillo de tomate con mozzarella por ejemplo) cuesta dos preuvenelappes.

Maastricht es una antigua urbe cuya edad exhibe mediante unas construcciones romanas y medievales distribuidas por toda la ciudad y muy bien conservadas. Arquitectónicamente se tiene que destacar: su ayuntamiento, con una torre que contiene un campanario con 49 campanas que suenan todos los sábados; las iglesias, destacando la de San Servaaskerk, la más antigua de los Países Bajos; y sus puentes, subrayando el que le concede el nombre a la ciudad. A título personal, recomiendo efusivamente una visita a la antigua Dominicanerkerk (iglesia de los Dominicos). Se trata de un templo transformado en librería donde se puede tomar un buen café mientras se disfruta de una agradable lectura.

Después de la visita obligada la ciudad y si aún os queda tiempo para las compras, en la zona histórica existe una gran variedad de tiendas. En el barrio de Wijck (colindante con el Mosa), encontraréis antigüedades, muebles y moda. En la otra orilla, tiendas de decoración, joyerías y bares donde hacer un kit-kat. No obstante, si os gusta la moda, id a Stokstraat en el que hay diversas tiendecillas o a St. Pieterstraat donde hallaréis lo más kitsch del momento. En el supuesto de que os llueva, siempre os quedará la opción de ir a Bakstraat que es un centro comercial cubierto. ¡Tened en cuenta que cierran a las 18:00 (excepto los jueves que es a las 21:00 y sábados a las 17:00)!

¿Cómo llegar?

Maastricht dispone de un aeropuerto donde opera Ryanair, tiene estación de tren y de autobuses.

1. As it turns out, both my landlady and the new housemate are atheists! The housemate came out after I said I was studying Sumerian stuff. She started a monologue about LOL!Bible, which was riddled with tiny little inaccuracies.

I managed not to engage in a megalomaniacal monologue myself. These days, I try to show a little bit of restraint, and only do this in the privacy of my room.

With a mirror.

2. Dispatches from the Culture Wars had the most hilarious troll ever this week. I mean, no amount of quoting will do this guy justice.  Every sentence he throws at us is like a little work of art, a pearl necklace,  a set of Fabergé eggs next to the Russel’s teapot, a gem of entertaining vapidity all in itself.

But, to those who happened to read this blog, and read there. (If any) I apologize for my profanity. I should not have wrote it. I just get so angry when I see Socialist Liberals mocking a party that has done more good, than the Democratic Party has ever done. Further more, a party that still fights for America. Unlike the Terrorist appeasing Liberal Democrats.

I mean, I almost cried here! Anyway, Brain-Dead Socialist Liberal Science Blog Attacks Me (boy, it had all the things you didn’t like, huh? AWESOME), and The Ed Brayton War iI Over, Please (there were tissues involved here, because I cried a little). His About page is a quote-miner’s paradise:

Likes: Beautiful women, skinny women,

Dislikes: Fat women, (…) being overweight.

How cruel of me to resort to petty ad hominems, but, clearly, this just might be the reason why he’s single, hurr hurr. I mean, he should post more.

We wouldn’t need the telly if he wrote more.

3. A fucking awesome WWII veteran tells the bigots to stuff it (well, nah, he’s more classy than that, BUT AWESOME)

This reminds me to call my fucking badass Lieutenant grandmother, yarrr.

4. The Church of Sweden will gaymarry gays. Gayly!

5. Meanwhile, the  veterans in the UK  tell the BNP to kindly fuck off and leave the military alone. Why yes, this is what they mean by “The BNP are, quite honestly, a very unattractive group” *snerk*.  But wait!

“The values of these extremists – many of whom are essentially racist – are fundamentally at odds with the values of the modern British military, such as tolerance and fairness.”

This is a good week for veterans!

6. This is also a good week for vaccines! Wired spanks the anti-vaccine movement thus:

“I used to say that the tide would turn when children started to die. Well, children have started to die,” Offit says, frowning as he ticks off recent fatal cases of meningitis in unvaccinated children in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. “So now I’ve changed it to ‘when enough children start to die.’ Because obviously, we’re not there yet.”

Ouch.

The doubters and deniers are empowered by the Internet (online, nobody knows you’re not a doctor) and helped by the mainstream media, which has an interest in pumping up bad science to create a “debate” where there should be none.

7. Meanwhile, in another corner of the internets Michael Shermer spanks Bill Maher for his vaccine denialism. YAY.

One of the most remarkable features of science is that it often leads its practitioners to change their minds and to say “I was wrong.”

Hah!

8. Meanwhile, in real life, an awesome trans woman doctor, Marci Bower, is helping the victims of female genital mutilation (FGM) by doing “clitoralplasty” FOR FREE.

Fact: Marci Bower is so totally badass.

9. I watched this vid, because Dan linked it. I don’t know what other people saw, but what I saw was this:

Whoa, what a trainwreck!

Also, Rashomon, LOL.

10. A XIII century Maastricht church was  turned into a bookstore. This is old news, but PICTURES PRETTY BOOKS ZOMD.

Also: hopefully, a time will come, when all churches will turn into sanctuaries of knowledge. BOOKS! I mean, BOOKS!

(Maastricht. That’s not too far from here. Hmm. BOOOOOOKS!)

Arik Wings of Nigeria-arikair.com (Arik Air) Bombardier DHC-8-402 (Q400) 5N-BKV (msn 4219) MST, originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

Arik Air (Arik Wings of Nigeria) (Lagos) will add Ilorin in Nigeria on October 25 with domestic service to both Lagos and Abuja.

News link:

allafrica.com/stories/200910230255.html

Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems.

Please click on photo or link below for full view, information and other photos.

http://airlinersgallery.com/2/24eff30/#/gallery/arik-air-arik-wings-of-nigeria/arik-wings-arikair-com-dhc-8-400-5n-bkv-06-grd-mst-t2-lr-903882/

ROTTERDAM -  De nationale recherche heeft in totaal 40 kilo cocaïne onderschept in de havens van Rotterdam en Trinidad. Dat meldde het landelijk parket van het Openbaar Ministerie (OM) donderdag. De drugs hebben een waarde van ruim 1,5 miljoen euro.

De nationale recherche onderschepte samen met de douane vorige week vrijdag een container met zestien pallets tegels uit Suriname in de haven van Rotterdam. Daarin bleek ook 29 kilo cocaïne in drie rugtassen te zijn verborgen. In verband met deze vondst zijn acht mannen als verdachte aangehouden, zegt het OM.

De politie doorzocht dinsdag zes woningen en twee bedrijven in Rotterdam, Maastricht, Andijk, Heerlen, Hoensbroek, Brunssum en Zwaag. De rechercheurs namen daarbij twee vuurwapens, ruim 280.000 euro contant geld, 600 gram cocaïne, administratie en mobiele telefoons in beslag.

Op 10 oktober werd ook een container met daarin 11 kilo cocaïne gevonden. Dat gebeurde in de haven van Port of Spain, de hoofdstad van Trinidad en Tobago.

Type of Place: Bike Rental
Location: Maastricht Train Station
Website
 
There are a number of places in Maastricht to rent a bike, but the one we’ve used the most is the Fietspecialist “Aon De Stasie”. The number one reason? Location. This rental shop is located just to the right the train station. It is also reasonably priced, which is important when you need bikes for a day or two for visitors.

Aon De Stasie rents a variety of bikes, from no-gear city bikes to electric-assisted options. I recommend you get at least a 3-gear rental. Unlike a lot of Holland, Limburg is pretty hilly and you’ll kill yourself if you try and bike all over the place without gears. Rentals for a 3-gear bike start at 7,50 per day with a 50 euro cash deposit. As with most rental places, the bikes can sometimes be hit and miss so I recommend testing your ride thoroughly before heading anywhere remote. Most of our rentals have been fine, but my father-in-law’s handlebars came loose the last time we rented bikes and he took a tumble because of it.

Aon De Stasie also offers bike repair, sells equipment, and offers protected bike stalls for when you need to leave your bike someplace safe for a while. They are open Monday to Friday from 5:15 AM to 1:15 AM. Saturday they open at 6 AM and Sunday they open at 7:15 AM. They only accept cash.

Bike Rentals are:

- City Bike (no gears): 7,50/day with 50 euro deposit

- 3-Gear Bikes (not listed on their price sheet): 7,50/day with 50 euro deposit

- Luxury/Hybrid Bike (24 gears): 10/day with 100 euro deposit. (No idea what makes them Lux)

- Electric Bikes: 35/day with 200 euro deposit