Day 6 Saturday 6th June 2009 We Visit Maastricht

Day 6 Saturday 6th June. We visit Maastricht.
After breakfast 19 of our group caught the 9:15 train and headed for Amsterdam.7 tour members stayed behind to explore Luxembourg. Just after the train left we passed over a 400 metre wide ravine which had perpendicular cliffs at its edge; at the bottom were many attractive houses, a church and a small river. Yesterday we were travelling through open pastoral country whereas today we were in a long tree clad valley with occasional open patches of farm lands as well as timber forests; some were being milled. There was plenty of greenery around. We changed trains at Liege and at 12:18 headed for Maastricht arriving there at 12:50. Here we left the remaining 17 to continue on their journey to Amsterdam; we wanted to see the Vrijhof; this is the site of the first Andre Rieu concert DVD that we have purchased. I had no idea where to look so I went to the information desk at the station to enquire. No one was in attendance so I helped myself to a free map that was behind the counter. On the street outside I asked the first person I could find that spoke English if he had heard of Andre Rieu; it was not until the forth try that I found some that had. He told us how to find the Vrijhof square which was two kilometres away. We decided to catch a nearby bus; one obliging bus driver said we should catch a number 9, 4 or a 3.. Soon a number nine arrived so we boarded and asked the driver to take us to the square by pointing to it on the map. He said we should catch another 9 or 4 or 3. So we waited for the next which was a #3. He repeated what the first driver had told us. On the fourth attempt we were on our way; it turned out that there were two busses on each route, one going clockwise and the other anticlockwise. After an interesting drive we found our target and wow! There it was just as it was on the DVD, minus the orchestra and all that went with it of course. The cathedral and churches; the crowds of people sitting outside the cafes and bars alongside the trees together with the apartment blocks. I wanted to take photos but Fay said she wanted a cup of tea first and tugged strongly at my arm as she made her way to a cafe. We could not get a table on the curb side as it was crowded. We had to settle for the inside seats. After an English Breakfast cup of tea I managed to get many photos. As we headed for the bus stop the bus departed; we missed it! So we decided to walk. We walked most of the way through a cobbled pedestrian mall; through large crowds. After a few minor bumps I observed that the crowds were walking one way on one side and the other way on the other side;we moved to the left; no more bumping! It was a Saturday, the shops were open, some people were shopping but most were walking fast to get somewhere. I have never seen so many people walking in malls at the same time before. It was like that for most of the way back to the station. On the way the main mall crossed a bridge over the River Maas where barges with cargos, passenger cruises and pleasure boats were sailing. We arrived back just in time to catch the 3:09pm train back to Liege for a train change. We had an hour to wait for a train back to Luxembourg. I spent most of the time photographing this magnificent station. To hold the extensive glass roof up huge beams extended from the centre out and upwards in a flat V shape to support a semi circular convex cross beam. There were many white such beams running parallel to the 9 platforms they covered. We left liege at 5:18 and arrived back at Luxembourg at 7:45pm. We had pizza, salad and mousse for tea. The other 17 had rather a difficult time returning from their trip to Amsterdam due to trains being cancelled for track repairs. They were due to arrive back about 8:45pm. It was not until after midnight that they arrived back at Luxembourg!