A real house in Maastricht = the best! Danke Ben!May 23, 2010
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the girls and Ben in Maastricht!
by the water in maastricht
| This will be a reoccurring theme in my next couple updates when I express how lucky I am to have such wonderful friends! From Brussels we trained to Maastricht where we stayed with my friend Ben from university. He is a German that has grown up in Maastricht and was the most wonderful host. He thought we were insane because we were soooo excited to be in a house again. A house with clean dishes, clean floors, clean shower with hot water, and the ever magical washing machine and dryer! After putting in the first load of laundry, Ben brought us to the city centre for a little tour of Maastricht. The place kind of reminded me of Amsterdam with the shops and restaurants everywhere. We also passed a quasi-zoo and the old city walls. It was at this point of the day that we realized that we have been together for a while now and have developed way too many inside jokes. I think poor Ben may have temporarily wondered what he had gotten himself into hosting 4 Canadian girls all by himself. I think he is missing us though now that we are gone. We hopped back into the car and drove to the labyrinth where Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany all meet in one spot. I can now say I have been in 3 places at one time! Another photo-shoot of our adventures ensued. The girls passed out on the car ride home – I discovered that my camera has decided to break again . Cameras and I are definitely not the best of friends and my track record with them continues in Europe. We enjoyed a quiet night at Ben’s. He barbecued us dinner and introduced us to some German beer. It’s crazy the difference in size that beverages come in. A bottle of beer in Germany tends to be the size of a pint but water bottles, diet coke, etc. are all much smaller and more expensive. In conclusion beer drinking just makes economical sense when doing a cost/unit analysis of my budget. I haven’t felt this clean in weeks! Day 2: Germany – Holland – Germany –Holland The next day Ben drove us all the way to Cologne or Köln. We were sooo excited to be on the autobahn!! The girls fell asleep about 10 minutes into the car ride and were surprised when they were able to wake up in a whole other country. We walked through a huge park to the Dom Cathedral. I cannot describe how huge and ornate it was. Amongst all these modern building and stores lies this huge gothic cathedral that is so intricate that it doesn’t seem real. We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sun by the Rhine River. On the way home we crossed the border so many times. We also stopped for ice cream. Europe seems to love these ice cream cafes where you can order huge sundaes and things. Erin tried spaghetti ice cream which is essentially ice cream put through the noodle press – admittedly it is delicious, but weird, at the same time. The portions were so huge that ended up just having ice cream for dinner that night. After our relaxing time in Maastricht and surrounding areas we got ready to head to Mannheim to meet up with some more of my friends from university. |
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