Julianakanaal

Once again it is amazing how a few hours of wandering the streets can make a place quickly feel familiar. When we had first arrived in Maastricht about 2 weeks ago, we had no idea of what to expect. Now it is really starting to feel like a city I could happily spend more time in.

The streets are clean, the shops are welcoming, there is a comfortable mixture of ancient and modern buildings and the public transport system works very well. Actually, it works extremely well, because today the ticketing system was broken. That made every trip free ! What more could anyone ask for ?

After a somewhat late breakfast, we caught the (free) bus into the city. Maggie seemed keen to visit the cathedral that has now been made into a huge bookstore and the modern art gallery. I was quite happy to visit a cake shop and enjoy a cake, coffee and sausage roll. Well it certainly looked like a sausage roll. It even tasted something like a sausage roll. The only problem was that it was served half cold, and there was no tomato sauce. I think it also cost me the equivalent of about 12 Australian dollars. Just as well the bus trip was free.

By midday the heat really was starting to build up. The city was baking under a cloudless sky, while Maggie and I were both quickly wilting. I lost all interest in further exploration and developed an overwhelming urge to return to the cool sanctuary of our hotel room.

Since we now knew the layout of the city very well indeed, we walked (staggered) back to the bus depot. In the process we passed several other members of our team, also out baking in the midday heat.

By some act of misfortune, we managed to miss the first bus to the hotel. This was probably because none of the normal bus numbers were working. Every bus seemed to have been renumbered as number 999. It was more than a little confusing.

We did manage to solve the riddle, using our combined three words of Dutch, and by performing a charade of the old and lost travellers. It must have worked, because we did eventually find ourselves flying towards the hotel at warp speed. We really didn't care - we just wanted to get out of the heat.

We still have one extremely important task to complete before we leave Maastricht. We have a mountain of dirty laundry, scattered throughout our room. Suspecting that, if it is going to be cleaned, it will be up to me, we will have to venture back out into the evil sunshine to seek the services of a local laundromat.

Tomorrow morning we will be loading the group and all our luggage into a bus for the transfer to Koblenz (Germany). That is where our bike ride along the Moselle will begin. It is also where we will meet the other 8 members of the team. With our group then swollen to 27 riders, we will certainly make a splash when we begin riding. (Actually, considering we will be riding alongside a big river, perhaps "splash" is not the most appropriate description. Maybe "impact" would have been better).Read more