Walk.with.me #7: Maastricht (Part 4) - Winding Alleyways and the Famous Het Vrijthof!

When we came down from the Maastricht fortification wall, we found ourselves in a back alleyway.

It was time to navigate our way back to the famous Het Vrijthof (Vrijthof Square). Fortunately, The Mann used to live in Maastricht and is great with directions, so I was free to take photos of all the little quirky things that piqued my interest.

Like this one! Did you know that roses can grow on creepers?

The still, cobblestoned streets of Maastricht we passed by charmed me even in their quietude.

We made a quick stop for my little bro to try climbing up some boulders. Though the sides were slippery, he managed to make it up one of them. I took a photo of him proudly perched on the top.

Another five minutes on foot, and we reached a statue of a man with creepy, hollowed-out eye sockets. He must have been a figure of importance at one time or the other, since the little stone children seem to look up to him. He stood commandingly at the forward end of a little boulevard.

The boulevard-way took us past the entrance of the Maastricht University Library, which brought back lots of memories to The Mann and Cousin Willem. They had very often passed through this entrance during their student years at the University. Look at the sparkly coloured glass shards atop the gateway!

Holland is renowned as the world's leading cycling country. No surprise then, that we passed by many cute little bikes parked on the sides of the streets. Thieving doesn't seem to be rife on these streets — none of the bikes were missing a tire or a seat. ;)

We also came across a tree with 5 pairs of shoes hanging from various branches. This reminded me of @gococonut’s post Travelling with lost soles in the United States in which thousands of shoes were tied to fences in the middle of nowhere.

We reached Het Vrijthof (Vrijthof Square) at last! It is an expansive, famous square that is flanked by the stately Basilica of St. Servatius and Church of St. Jan (the one with the red tower) on one side, and numerous cafes and restaurants on the other.

Although we had already filled our tummies Waffles and Fries and Asian Snacks from the Wednesday Maastricht Market a mere couple of hours ago, our long walk over bridges and through the Mini Zoo of Maastricht City Park made our tummies do a little dance. DINNER was on everybody's mind! While i made photos of the Basilica of St. Servatius in all its glory, The Mann headed to Gauchos, which offers all-you-can-eat spare ribs, to place our dinner reservations.

While the Mann made reservations, my lil bro went to my go-to place for Luikse Wafels — Pinky! The Luikse Wafel originated from the Belgian city of Liege. It is a soft, chewy waffle coated with a layer of completely-melted sugar that makes every bite a stickily-good one. There are two brands specialising in this waffle in Maastricht, direct competitors Jamin and Pinky! In my opinion, Pinky’s waffles are 10x better -- they are always freshly made when I order them and do not have the mild baking soda taste that is noticeable in its competitor's waffles. :)

I stood at the corner trying to figure out the significance of the rainbow-coloured crossing. The words on each end didn’t really make much sense to me, but I figured it had something to do with the homosexual community in Maastricht.

My sweet tooth jiggled itself at me as my brother approached, carrying my Luikse waffle. The neurons in my brain forgot to send crucial messages. I wolfed half of the waffle down before remembering that I hadn’t yet taken a photo! So the photo below is an old one from a previous visit ;)

The Mann came back, announcing that our reservation was set for 18:30. We had two hours! We decided to check out the beautiful cathedral-turned-book-store Boekhandel Dominican. A brief stroll took us to the entrance.

The ceiling's so high, you can take your brains to the sky! A strange sensation of awe came over me, and I started to whisper on reflex instead of speaking at a normal volume.

There are all sorts of book categories in Boekhandel Dominican. There was a English section and a children's corner.

Several visitors enjoyed a hot drink at the cafe at the end, beside the children's corner.
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As we walked out, we spotted another cafe to the right. Hmmm. . . Tempting! We needed to save our bellies for the upcoming rib buffet though, so we decided to do some pre-dinner chill time at The Mann’s grandmother's apartment instead.

Can you believe that I had to break one day’s adventures into a 5-part Maastricht series?! ;)

Part 5 will continue with our rib feast at Gauchos.

I've included my previous posts in the Maastricht series, in case you haven't read them yet. :)

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Click on the picture below to view Part 1 of my Maastricht adventure:

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Click on the picture below to view Part 2 of my Maastricht adventure:

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Click on the picture below to view Part 3 of my Maastricht adventure:

Address:

Pinky
Vrijthof 1
6211 ET Maastricht, Netherlands
Opens: daily 11:00 - 22:00
Contact: +31 43 321 1989

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