Maastricht (10th to 14th September)
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Arrival day, 10th – At last we had arrived in Maastricht, hoping to pick up a free mooring in the centre of the waterways, but that wasn’t to be (due to an inconsiderate arsehole), and we managed instead to secure a berth in t’Bassin in the town.
Not a bad mooring really, and with an offer of two nights for the price of one we decided to stay for four nights and relax.
Having bedded in, Nicki was soon off with Casper for some exercise and found some lovely unexpected walking areas, so they disappeared for some little while, and I was left to my own devices.
With a little research, we are pretty certain that this vast green area is known as The Frontenpark, an “exciting and rugged piece of nature located in the heart of the city” (or “the untamed back garden of the Sphinxkwartier”).
The following day (11th) I had arranged to return to Deinze to pick up the car and bring it back to Maastricht. I set off on my bike to the train station, and caught a train into Deinze where I was met by Keith. We weren’t over to his house for dinner lunch and to check out the new litter of puppies. Nicki wanted plenty of pictures and videos. Then we headed off to the farm to pick up the car.
Our second full day moored in Maastricht (12th), found us driving over to Deventer to park up the car at our winter mooring, ready for when we set off back to the UK at the end of October, and to have a chat with the harbour master, just to confirm our booking. That done, we walked over to catch the train back to Maastricht and, a two hour journey later, we were back at the boat.
Sunday, 13th, was a fairly chilled day. We noted that there was a flea/antiques market in the morning so headed over to the main square, hoping (correctly) that that was where it was. However we were an hour and a half too early, so we went back to the boat for a while before trying again. Nothing sprung out at us, although there were plenty of stuffed dead animals if we’d been so inclined!
The rest of the day was spent pottering round the boat, waiting to watch the Grand Prix in the evening and getting ready for the off in the morning.
