Day 9 - a day in Maastricht

This morning we started out with running to the store since we didn't know what time we would be home. See here in Holland, its all about family. So, in order to spend time with your family, they close down all stores including grocery stores by 6pm. So when you get off at 4pm, you have to hurry to get your stuff done before heading home. So since we didn't know what time we were going to be home, and we needed milk, and since no places are open tomorrow, we had to get our stuff before our big adventure for the day.

We left to catch our train around 10:15am. We took a train to a city, to catch a bus to another city, then a train to our final destination. 1 hr, 45 minutes later, we were finally there! beautiful skies, 75 degree weather and a whole town to see.

Our first stop, was to see Hellsgate, but on the way to see it, we passed this old church. Joshua did the research and found it was started being built in the year 1,000. We went inside of it and it was BEAUTIFUL! oh my goodness! We were only allowed to take pictures in one area, but wish we could have taken pictures of the whole thing.

We then continued to walk to find Hellgate which was about a 10 minute walk from there.

After checking out Hellgate, we started to walk to Fort St. Pieter, when we stumbled upon a Gelato cart. Of course we had to stop. :)

Right across the street from the Gelato cart, there was a fenced area with birds, then across from that was a fenced area with goats & deer. So we stopped to eat our Gelato and take a little break.


and of course Charlene had to tease the goats also. :)


We finally made it up to Fort St. Pieters, but to our disappointment, it was closed and under construction. So we hiked around it. Here is the view from the top.

We were then off to find the Fort St. Pieters caves, so we walked, and walked, and walked, until we asked somebody (who just so happens to be American also) and told us that we passed it, but not just that, they only do 2 tours daily and we missed them both. Bummer. We were sweating by this point since it was 75 and humid which to us, is hotter than Arizona at 100 degrees! So we were dying. So we decided to hike back down to the city and go on a horse carriage ride to see the rest of the city. GREAT idea since our little feeties needed a break for a while. :) So here are some sites we passed that we got pictures of. :)


By the end of the buggie ride, we were all exhausted so headed back to the train station.

We walked a cross a bridge that reminded Joshua of Fremont bridge.

Joshua, who is KNOWN to taking pictures of my butt, I caught taking this picture of me, and since the camera wasn't aimed down at my butt, I decided to smile for him. Now its one of his favorite pictures of Me.

Also on the way back to the train station, Joshua noticed that the city planters, they were growing....umm...a little "special" plant in all of them. LOL


Total distanced walked 5.5 miles! Charlene was a trooper and walked 5 miles by herself, and Theodore sat back and enjoyed being carried in the front carrier the whole day and getting all the attention.

Tomorrows adventures - church, and a visit with the cousin.