All For Post, and Post For All.

This is a first for me. Well, not the blog - but especially this blog post. Whats so special you may snarl? Well, its been rattled off an offline blog editor called MarsEdit, which definitely may be a small to almost unnoticeable step for womankind but is a giant technological leap for me. Also its a first since I am currently at a laundromat waiting for the clothes to get done. As in not the fact that I've ever got my clothes done at a laundromat; the idea of doing a blog post while waiting for ... you get the idea.

Right - so a picto post was promised, and just like the governments of most downtrodden nations, I do keep my promises. So here goes ...

The trip to Maastricht in the Netherlands was not planned out of any larger idea to include another city in our 'done' list, but more because its the closest city which has movie theaters which run angrezi films. Its also the closest Dutch city to Aachen. (The closest German city is Cologne) But once we were there, a friend of Gaurav's who had studied there took it upon her delicate shoulders to give us the 'Maastricht in 24-Hours Tour', and by the time we got around to watching Inception, we could have as well have written a short documentary on the city.

It was a lovely city - and especially because of the beautiful river that bisects the city into 2 halves.

The main town hall in the town square ... nice, but sadly not a patch on our Aachen Rathaus :-)

Strange man holding ball of fire. We would have gone closer, but our tour guide tempted us with offers of the 'world's best ice-cream' which was on a parallel street. Which is definitely was. No pictures but can provide a link - if you can find this store 'Australian Homemade Ice Cream' - GO EAT!!! See here ...

This is supposedly ranked in several guidebooks as Europe's best french fries. We didn't bother - just having lunched and all ... and anyway, the Germans and the Dutch (don't know about the rest of Europe) have their fries dunked in bucketfuls of mayonnaise. Yes, not our good old 'it's different' sauce, but MAYO. And not being too much a Mayo fan, we decided to skip it.

European streets are all the same ... cute and quaint.

The other square which led off to the university - Maastricht again has a fairly famous educational background. The one thing I found really unusual was the deep red of the bell tower next to the main church. A close-up below ...

Na? And it was a fairly muggy day with little sun and more threatening-to-ruin-plans clouds, so the red and the gold just stuck out even more so. Quite nice.

Aah. Now the fun part. In the old ages, the head religious honchos of Maastricht had quite a thing for building churches. A lot of them. I mean - a hell lot (excuse the blasphemy). So the new administration (I mean still Stone Age by American historical standards) were quite at their wits end in terms of figuring out what to do with all the Churches. They couldn't well raze them down (the possible violent riots etc) but then what?

So they started 'leasing' them out. Exactly. So abandoned old Gothic churches suddenly transformed into ... car parks (YES!!), discotheques (DOUBLE YESS!!), hotels, restaurants, coffee-shops (the regular ones), libraries and bookstores. So the picture above is of a fairly well-stocked bookstore (you can make out the entrance - its the maroon part).

I LOVED it!!! Check out the simple gorgeous pillars, the high ceiling and the lovely windows at the end.

and don't miss the floor :-)

Crossword, Landmark or Barnes & Nobles ... dig that!!! They also to their credit had a very interesting range of books - especially some great cartoon ones which we picked up and which will be a topic of another blog post.

But I loved their main Church. Nothing fancy or pricey like Aachen, but intricate carvings and a truly peaceful atmosphere.

The whole Church area.

The next example of what you can do with a Church - reconverted into a fairly snazzy hotel, complete with some psychedelic UFO-looking lanterns (I love the fact that just behind it on the ceiling are original Church carvings - something wonderfully weird about it)

And the entrance was even more radical - they remixed it to create a kind Wonderland tunnel that you go through - quite quixotic.

Another one for the Lit fans. Maastricht is also the final resting place of D'Artagnan - yes, of the 'one for all all for one' musketeers legend. If you're either furiously getting ready to send me a stinker or are guiltily googling his name since you had no CLUE he was a real person - relax, he was. Yes the details of whether their quadro-bromance really occurred or if Charlie Sheen did look really good in the film are slightly sketchy, but rest assured - there was a man, there was a D'Artagnan.

Don't believe me still? Read the inscription. CORRECTION: My good friend Kedar brought it to my notice about how interesting it was that Mr D'Artagnan has a commemorative statue in the city ... considering he was fighting for the French King against the Dutch! Talk about being good sports. Or maybe they saw the Chris 'O Donnel in the film and were moved to make the statue. I really don't know. Anyway, he died fighting in battle when a musket went into his throat ... I think at this spot.

There is art. There is more art. And then there is crap. Why oh why would anyone spend money on this waste of time? (Video below) For those who are too befuddled by the sheer perfidy of rubbish ... its essentially a mermaid-type woman (who looks more like she's stepped off the set of Thriller) comforting a dead giraffe (because they ARE so cute and cuddly) while on a marooned island with random other animals (supposedly extinct ones - but there was a penguin and a donkey there - both of which I am willing to swear are not extinct by any standards) floating / walking in a moat. And oh, as a finishing touch this entire thing is in a cage.

Even the fake bear seated an arms length away looks like he's in no position to comment on this travesty of artistic liberty. The cute kids seem to be able to do nothing to help.

Now since that's done, we move to random animal and nature shots. There is no particular reason for them being there, its just that Nat Geo has an annual duck feature they do, and I want to make sure I have pictures up that can justify my bird-watching skills. (Read as: you can furiously click the downward arrow button)

I found this hilarious. Imagine living there and having a cannon right below your house. Talk about a welcome wagon!

No clue what this is. I want to say theme ship, but the sheer moronicity of it stops me. Why would you have a boat designed like a castle complete with animals inside? Bleats me.

And that's that. Farewell, adieu till my next post. It really thrills me every time someone admits to reading my blog, and readers - don't worry. I will not let anyone else know that you do :-)

Cheers,
Sush