DAY 2 - SAT 9/20 - MAASTRICHT, HOLLAND

Yesterday's brilliant power-nap, and going to bed at a normal hour last night seems to have thwarted any remnants of jet lag.  And so we were ready for another day's outing with the Harlings.  We awoke at a reasonable hour and Heidi had laid out a typical German breakfast.  We remember these feasts from 30 years ago when she used to do this in Scarsdale and invite our family to join them.

Since Aachen is located in the western-most tip of Germany, it is near the borders of both Holland and Belgium, so you can easily be in all three countries in one day.  Their plan is to give us a taste of it all while we are here.  

So today we are going to Maastricht, Holland, only 40 K away (about 24 miles).  Their daughter Caroline, who lives nearby, will join us.

Maastricht is located on the Meuse river.  By way of the Treaty of 1992 to integrate Europe, Maastricht is known as the birthplace of the European Union and the euro, the single European currency.

Along the way Frank points out some interesting sights and we make a side trip to one of them.

Here is Kasteel Bloemendal, once a private Catholic school where Rose Kennedy went to boarding school, now a hotel with the Honeymoon Suite named after her.  It's quite majestic and magnificent.

We drive through the beautiful Dutch countryside, this area known as the 'Dutch Alps' for their rolling hills.

Then we make a side trip to the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial of WW ll, a somber and truly sobering experience.

We then arrive at our destination Maastricht, a charming city.  Here are some typical street scenes.

The Dutch are master flower cultivators and designers.  Here is a famous flower shop that caters to the a royal family.

We caught a bachelorette party in progress, and they were happy to pose for us.  As two old married couples, we warned them, jokingly of course:  'Don't do it, don't do it!'  We all had a good laugh.

Note the street name here of Jodenstraat, meaning Jew Street, where there were many clothing shops.

A very modern atypical roof design over a shopping plaza.

Beautiful Town Hall.

A street stand selling herring, a typical Dutch snack, done in many ways.

Heidi loves herring and buys a plateful for us to try.  She chooses the raw ones, sushi quality...

... and proceeds to demonstrate how the Dutch eat them.  We love sushi, but today we weren't in the mood for that and so just enjoyed watching Heidi gobble them down, Dutch style!

The typical ubiquitous Dutch shoes.

A Frite shop which we were in the mood for, and tried them with one of their famous sauces, curry ketchup.

A very elegant cafe on a chic shopping street.

When we were ready for a pick-me-up, we chose a lively grand cafe which took up the entire square.  We ordered some great beers and the waiter suggested we try the 'Bitte Balls' which look like small deep-fried meat balls, with something tasty inside but we weren't quite sure what it was.  We loved them!

And when it started to rain, all the oversized umbrellas were efficiently opened within minutes, and everyone just kept on schmoozing without skipping a beat.  They have the routine down pat.

Everywhere there are always large groups of friends relaxing together... It's a beautiful thing.

We returned to Aachen in the late afternoon, had a short half-hour power nap, and then got ready to go out for dinner.  We went to Restaurant Gut Entenpfuhl, a local fabulous but homey and not too pricey farm-to-table style restaurant out in the countryside, but only minutes away from their house.  Wish we had something like that where we live!

At the restaurant we met Laura and Joe Moore, neighbors and good friends of Heidi and Frank.  They are American ex-pats from Celina, Ohio, where he works for Emerson Climate Technology, a major international company.  He was transferred to Aachen about a year ago (Heidi was their relo consultant) and will be based here for 3-5 years (we're so jealous!).  He is the manager of a major Oracle software project, but this project is in the Czech Republic...go figure!  We wanted to meet each other and talk about our experiences living overseas.

Then after dinner we all met back at the Harlings for a nightcap, and to see their photo album of their recent trip to Chisinau, Moldova (a former Russian Republic) for a family wedding.  

It was another great day, and a very fun and enjoyable evening, sharing stories, enjoying good wine, and laughing a lot.