Urban Garden.114
Urban Garden.113
City Views.143
Maastricht means “Maas Crossing,” or Ford of the Meuse / Maas. All the photos in this post were taken in and around Fort Sint Pieter, built at the top of a hill to the west of the main city, getting fairly close to the Belgian border. (Locals seem to call it a mountain, but that’s all in the eye of the beholder.) Apparently invaders (usually the French) attacked Maastricht many times, and this fort was built into the top of the hill after the success of one invasion, which set up guns at the top of the hill and lobbed them over the then-current city walls. (As the city grew, new walls were built further out than the old walls which usually remained up. You’ve already seen both this fort and one gate still standing from a past incarnation of one such wall.) More recently, Maastricht is known for the Treaty on European Union (aka the Maastricht Treaty), signed here in 1992. Maybe they hoped this union thing means they’ll never have to fire up these cannons again, eh? 😊
Small Wonders.143
Urban Garden.112
Urban Garden.111
City Views.140
Our penultimate suite of photos from the lovely city of Arnhem, capital of the (by Dutch standards) very large province of Gelderland. My cousin Sam commented the first time I posted a photo of this historic cathedral that he loves the cathedral – simply because it’s a lovely and impressive structure and stands out in the cityscape, as you see. Add the history, to which I referred in an earlier post, and it gets even more interesting. But then, ask yourself how I got close enough to photograph the interesting sculptures of individuals you see in the photo above? And then look closely just above the left-hand clock in the photo below. Yes, that is one of two “glass balconies” built into this structure, and yes, I walked out onto both of them, and yes, even I who am really not afraid of heights found it a wee – bit – freaky. I do very highly recommend the experience and have already told Sam that we need to go when he visits. We’ll see if he can fit into his itinerary or not :-). In the gallery below, more photos from Arnhem as taken either from the church tower & glass balconies, or from my walks around town.
(so much world, so little time....) 