Maastricht - the finale

DAY ELEVEN:
We started out the day by heading over to a local bike shop in the old town! The owners love the BYU group and let us descend on their little repair shop/cafe every year to tell us about how much biking is a part of everyday life in the Netherlands. To thank them (since they do it for free!), the group pays for everyone to get something from the cafe, so I had a fantastic tropical smoothie while listening.

We learned that Dutch children typically learn to ride a bike about the same time as they learn to walk, and by the time they are 6 or 7, they are riding places alone (such as to school or friends). In the Netherlands, you can't get your drivers license until you are 18, and even then, it costs between $1500 and $2000, not including things like insurance or car registration. With the biking infrastructure that the country has, they really try to not only make it easier to bike, but also harder to drive, and it shows. Most people have 2 or 3 bikes, and typically 1 car or less per family. You'd think this would be hard when it comes to things like groceries, but you should see their bikes. Everyone has side bags on the back and a backpack on, and the Dutch people do things in smaller quantities anyway. Rather than a huge grocery store haul, they go to the local markets a few times a week to get really fresh food. It honestly sounds like the way to live. I talked to the woman afterward to find out more about how people with disabilities get around since they can't bike, and it was interesting to hear. They have a lot of bike adaptations so that they can be controlled with the arms rather than legs, or bikes that are electric and really assist in the effort. It's also completely legal and common for people with disabilities in wheelchairs to use the bike lanes for their wheelchair. Because everything is accessible by bike, everything is accessible by wheelchair. It's really pretty amazing.
Then we wandered through the local market, smelling all of the fresh fruits and meats, and seeing all the clothes and everything that there was. All I wanted was a fridge and a kitchen to be able to cook with it all.

After that, a few friends and I met up with the professors and some of their kids, and rode off to Valkenburg! It's this cute little town about 8 miles away from Maastricht with a castle. It's like the Leavenworth equivalent of the Netherlands I guess? We explored some trails, kinda trespassed on a campground, had amazing (and cheap) gelato, and just enjoyed the sites before riding home! It's crazy to think that a distance like that back home I would never even think to bike. Almost 20 miles round trip? That's way too far. But by the end of the week we'd spent in the Netherlands, that wasn't far at all. It was honestly a super quick and fun ride (and downhill all the way home).

On the way home, one of the girls and I decided to try and find the birkenstock store in town because we'd heard that you can get them cheaper in Europe. The others headed off, and so she and I parked our bikes and ended up finding it, but there really wasn't any different in price, which was rather disappointing. What we did find was a cute restaurant in an outdoor square where we sat and shared a large appetizer platter for dinner! It was so good, and being outdoors was great, and we just sat and talked for a long time, and that one-on-one time was definitely needed. It was so wonderful to get to know her better and have some deep conversations and just really connect with someone.

When we got back, we joined up with the rest of the group, and enjoyed an evening out on the deck of the hostel! we stayed out there chatting until almost midnight, and it was so nice. After crazy busy days, it's sometimes just nice to sit and enjoy the company of great people.

DAY TWELVE:

This morning I managed to actually pull myself out of bed in time to make it to the group workout, which was great. It's been pushing me a lot more in general, and I enjoy the circuits that we do. It moves really fast, so it doesn't feel like it's dragging on all morning.

After that and breakfast, we had book group! Part of this trip is reading three different books, and discussing them in different locations. The book we had to have done at this point in time was called How Cycling Can Save The World, and it was fantastic. Honestly, I think that everyone should read the book and see how it can change your life. Even better was reading it and then spending all this time here in the Netherlands where everything is so focused on biking. They literally make it easier to bike here than anything else, and so everyone bikes. Having the bike at my disposal all week has been fantastic, and we just up and go. It was so fun to talk about what would have to change in the US in order for more people to ride bikes, and why we all feel so safe here even though no one is ever wearing a helmet while biking.

Then we went off to work on interviews. We're helping a BYU professor out while we're here, and recording interviews with European citizens about how their family impacts their health. In small groups, we have to go and ask random people if they speak English, and if they're willing to have us record them. Overall, the answer was no. The first person to finally say yes to us, and we couldn't get the recorder to work. We finally got two done, but then we had to be back at the hostel to meet for a bike ride.

We rode about five miles out to this cute little restaurant in the middle of the woods for lunch! We ate outside on the patio and just loved life. I finally had pancakes, which have been advertised all over the place, and are really more of a thick crepe. With strawberries and whipped cream, they seriously hit the spot. Then we rode back to Maastricht, and I stopped in town to grab some postcards and a smashed penny. I love that I can find that even in Europe, although it's definitely closer to $1.30 to do it here rather than the $0.51 it is back home. So worth it.

Then with a group, I rode to the Maastricht University bookstore, and onto the Maastricht underground. There is a giant network of caves under the city that stretches for miles. They were built when the farmers needed something to do during the winter, so they went down and mined limestone from the hills underneath them. A lot of them have been destroyed, either by quarrying, explosions, or simply collapsing, but a lot are still there. Back in the 1800's and 1900's, artists were hired to draw murals all over the walls with charcoal to turn it into an attraction to draw people in for tours. Our tour guide was hilarious and had us all laughing the entire time. The caves were about 50 degrees and 98% humidity, so you can really only stay comfortable in them for about an hour before your clothes start feeling wet (our tour was a little over an hour). We saw some really amazing drawings, we saw a domed room where French invaders tried (and failed) to blow up the tunnels to get to the fort above, we saw the lines from where the limestone was cut and hauled out. There is art and signatures everywhere. There is one signature on a wall left by a Jew who was using the tunnels to flee to safety, and next to it is his signature from 40 years later, when he came back to the place that had helped save his life during the Holocaust. The limestone felt so dry in the humidity, but when the guide sprayed water on it, it was instantly absorbed. I guess the cubes that they quarried out were so extremely heavy due to the water content that the rock could just absorb right up. It was also so so dark. The guide was saying that the level of darkness in the caves is such that even a cat can see nothing. At one point, she decided that we had been a fun enough group, and we were smart enough, and she shut all the lights off. I have never felt so blind in my life, and it was horrific. The sense of happiness that I felt when the light eventually got turned back on is indescribable. But the tour was still amazing!

Then the hostel served us a traditional dutch dinner, which consisted of salad, bread, potato wedges, mashed potatoes, meatballs and cream sauce, a weird beef thing, peas, green beans, and vlaa, which is a liquidy kind of pudding like thing. The dinner was great, the vlaa was not my favorite. But green beans tasted so good, especially since I don't have great access to vegetables right now. Fruits I'm doing great on, vegetables are a little harder.

After dinner we hopped back on our bikes and headed out to this little chateau that was about three miles outside of town. It was stunning, the bike ride was stunning, and the view was stunning. It was a really cool ride.

 We decided the week just wouldn't be complete if we didn't go back out to our little windmill one more time, so off we went. The wind in my hair felt amazing, and I took a  couple videos riding through the field at sunset (which isn't until after 10pm here).

Then home to pack up a bit and get ready to leave for France tomorrow! I had to turn in my bike key, and it was honestly sad. I really am going to miss being able to just walk out the front door, hop on a bike, and go anywhere I want anytime! It was a fantastic experience.

Amsterdam

DAY TEN

The number of people on this trip who had their Amsterdam posts captioned "AmsterDANG" still has me cringing.

We woke up and climbed onto the bus at about 8am after a quick breakfast! I had actually gotten up and gone running beforehand which was great. It was peaceful and quiet and I ran along the canal and it was just perfect. But also short, as I have very little motivation for running right now.
Breakfast is great. Here in Europe, they do breakfast a little differently. The only eggs you'll find are hardboiled (fine by me), the only cereal is granola (for yogurt), and the only meat is lunch meat. What I end up having most mornings here is an open-face sandwich of fresh whole wheat bread, a piece of cheese, turkey, cucumbers, and tomatoes. In addition to that, I spread a rice cake with peanut butter and another one with nutella, and then I have an egg or two and an apple. It usually keeps me full for most of the morning which is good because we never really know when we'll get around to finding lunch. We're not supposed to take food with us from the breakfast buffet, but we all do. I usually grab a couple bagettes, as I have fruit and carrots and the combination of those will keep me happy when I get hungry later.

But anyway! Off to Amsterdam! We got dropped off in north Amsterdam, and crossed the water to the train station on a ferry. We came out on the other side of the train station (which has SOOO much bike parking it's insane), and into Amsterdam! The first item of business was our tickets to the Anne Frank House, so we headed off to walk that way. And we walked and walked and walked. It was on the other side of the city. It was amazing when we got there! We had watched the Anne Frank movie on the bus on the way as a little refresher, and I was actually surprised by what I had forgotten so I was grateful for it. We got to the house a little before our tour time, so me and my friends wandered around the canals. Amsterdam is built on a system of canals, and it is actually super incredible, water is everywhere. While wandering, we found the Tulip museum!

We popped inside, and while we didn't go into the actual museum, it was cool to see all the tulip bulbs they were selling and everything tulip themed. (Fun fact, Holland had an economy based on tulips that crashed the same way the US housing market did. You should look it up). We also found the homomonument, which was built in honor of the gay individuals that were victims of the Halocaust. Unexpected and yet cool.

Then it was time to visit the Anne Frank house! They have a really amazing way of doing the audio tour, in that you have a little remote shaped speaker that you hold up to your ear like a phone that connects to sensors in the rooms, so as you walk through, the tour progressing at your speed. You start on the bottom floor of the building, in the warehouse space. When you move upstairs into the office space, you learn about the individuals who worked so hard to keep the Frank's and the others hidden in the building. They were incredible individuals. Then you follow a little hallway, and duck behind the actual bookcase that was covering the door that lead to the back. That was one of the craziest parts for me, as it is the actual bookcase, not a replica. When the war was over, Otto Frank, the only survivor of those in hiding, went back and his friends had not touched a thing. They saved it all. You duck behind the bookcase, and you're inside this incredibly small space. It housed all four Frank's and one other, in two very tiny little rooms, with a small bathroom at the base of a staircase that led further upstairs. Upstairs was a tiny kitchen where two others also slept, and a closet that was another bedroom. Eight people, living in hiding, doing their best to make no noise and act as though they didn't exist, because their lives depended on it. It was very much an out of body experience, one of those things that I thought would be cool to experience, but never really thought I would. Back downstairs in the gallery rooms, they had Anne's diary, and some video clips of Otto from post war. Overall it was a really incredible and humbling experience, to be in that space and know what had taken place there. They asked for no photos during the tour, but I was able to take a picture of the doors outside the house, the ones that people would have used in her time.

After the Anne Frank House, we took a canal tour! We climbed down into a boat, and they took us out for an hour on the canals! It was really cool to see Amsterdam from that perspective, and learn some of the history of the city. The houses are all tall and narrow because in the 1600's, you were taxed based on how wide your house was! It was so nice, and also so sunny. I could feel myself burning while we were on the boat (later proven accurate by the lines of my chacos sandals burned into my feet). I also got a cool time lapse video of the tour, but I'll have to figure out how to post that later.

After the cruise, we walked over to the bloemenmarket! It was advertised as a flower market, and so I was excited, but really it was just tulip bulbs. I still thought it was cool but the group I was with did not, so we didn't stay long. We grabbed a quick lunch nearby, and then walked over to the Vodelpaark. We found a spot to sit, and just chilled for awhile. Then it was a two mile walk back to the train station to meet the group.


Amsterdam was cool, but it was a city that I don't really feel the need to go back to. It was overpowered by cyclists, to the point that as a pedestrian, it was extremely difficult to navigate. The city was very spread out, and the Netherlands, in general, shuts down early, so everything (other than the red light district, which we avoided) is closed by 7pm. As great as the canals are, it is so difficult to get around, and I would be terrified to try and cycle there. It was amazing to go and see that bit of history and do what we did, but I reallu just have no draw to go back. It wasn't really my thing overall.

Maastricht - Middle

DAY NINE

I got up this morning and went running! I opted to wait a little later and go on my own, at my own pace, rather than stick with the group today. After breakfast I had class, and then just got things a bit more organized. At noon, we headed out as a group to bike to the Netherlands US Military Cemetery. Along the ride, I kept thinking about how crazy the situation was, and how incredible it is that I'm in the Netherlands right now, biking through the streets. I was trying to take it all in, from the winding roads to the kind old man in his front yard who was cheering as all 60 of us biked past. I'm trying my best to be good about journaling and taking pictures so I can capture as much of this experience as I can. It was about a 6 mile ride, and probably three miles of it was straight uphill. It was honestly rough, and I was dripping in sweat by the time I made it to the top.

The cemetery was incredible. It was built by the US government, on land gifted in perpetuity by the people of Maastricht. It contains the remains of 8,301 US soldiers, as well as a couple walls with the names of all the US soldiers who were never found after the war. The US government pays to maintain the cemetery, but each of the gravesites has been adopted by a citizen of the city of Maastricht. These citizens pray over the graves and bring flowers to them periodically, to give them the love that they don't receive from family due to the distance. The cemetery was humbling. We had a tour guide who talked to us and told us stories at the beginning of our time there. Turns out the cemetery originally had around 16,000 soldiers in it, but a few years after the war, the US gave families the opportunity to have the remains of their soldier sent home. A large majority chose to do so, but a good chunk also decided to leave the bodies in their original resting place, and the cemetery was built around the ones who remained.

After the cemetery, we chose to bike a scenic route back into Maastricht, so after a couple more hills, we made our way to a beautiful windmill. It was fun to stop at and see!

Then we kept on riding, and thankfully from that point on, it was almost entirely downhill. It was fantastic. I managed to balance my phone in one hand and bike with the other to take a time lapse video, but it ended up being a lot shorter than I thought it would be! I'm going to try and do it again next time we ride out to the windmill. We'll see how that goes and if I break my phone or not.

When we got home, we just chilled in the lobby for a bit and talked. One of the professors sat with us, as well as a couple of the students who we don't normally hang out with, and we had some really good conversations about life and got to hear about his journey to teaching at BYU. we also talked about all the other places we'll be staying in the future, and it sounds like the one that we're in is our roughest accommodation of the trip, so it's all good. A sketchy hostel for a few nights is good life experience (I would still like soap in the bathroom though. I feel like that should be universal).

Then we had a big BBQ dinner, with a few pasta salads, potato salad, green salad, and a ton of meat and bread. It tasted so good, and after a long bike ride and a week of eating out in small portions, it was really nice to eat until you really felt full. Then we had family home evening, complete with a ping-pong tournament and popsicle treats! I'm spent from the day, and I want to get up early to go running tomorrow, so I'm crashing early tonight. This might prove difficult for a few reasons. 1, my roommates are extremely loud and very much night people. 2, the hostel blasts music on the deck just outside our window until waaaay late, and 3, we're so far North that the sun stays out so late. Its almost 10 PM right now, and it could easily pass for 4 PM. the sun doesn't really go down until like 11, and it's back up around 5. So it's been interesting falling asleep!