Il Y a is the restaurant we choose for Saturday night, on a narrow street with diners from numerous establishments covering the cobblestones. Two brothers run this little place and they are passionate about food and wine, engage in jaunty banter with occasional singing. It’s lovely inside, quite narrow, walls covered in a motley assortment of paintings of such diverse subjects as Madonna and Child and dark tressed femme fatales. Red and white checked cloth serviettes match the aprons on the brothers who translate everything on the French inspired menu to English for us and suggest matching wines after a couple of which Sean announces “très bien!” to the waiter who checks our approval. One highlight of the meal was Mama’s tartje, made by their mother, who quite often ambled through the restaurant helping out. The name of the restaurant is partly inspired by the Belgian Jacques Brel’s 1954 song Il Y a. Il y a tant de lumières dans les rues des... (There are so many lights in the streets...)
Churches abound in historic towns but Sean is awestruck (this is true) by St Servatius Basilica, built over the grave of St Servatius patron saint of Maastricht, who died there in 384AD. The church’s current Romanesque architecture dates from about 1000 and built onto over the ages. The entrance is festooned with statues, an enclosed courtyard with lavender hedges features a church bell from 1515 over 6000kg in weight and there is a Royale Entrance with a labyrinth design in the mosaic floor and elaborate statues of saints, kings and prophets in the arches. The inside has a sacred ambience. The treasury has lots of gold gilded reliquaries and the large golden shrine of St Servatius. Sean thought the church was one of the highlights of Maastricht.
Nextdoor to St. Servatius is the St. Jan, a Gothic church which was originally built as a baptistry of St Serv, then became Protestant in 1632. It is smaller but it’s soaring bright red tower is prominent and picturesque. It has been painted red to protect its marl stone.
Then there is former Dominicans church is one of the oldest Gothic churches in The Netherlands. It dates from the 13th century and is now a beautiful bookstore owned by the Selexyz chain.
Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk is another Romanesque style church dating from 1000 or so years ago but is still used by religious congregations as opposed to paperback best seller bargain hunters. On Sunday hundreds of candles lit by worshippers for Our Lady Star of the Sea cover tables and radiate a luminescent glow and a too warm wall of air.
Maastricht still has remnants of 13th century medieval walls including the impressive Helpoort or Hell Gate. After we meandered around this part of town, following wall ruins nearby streams leading to the river we rest on a bench by a duck pond, watching completely motionless turtles sunning themselves and wonder what it is that turtles actually do. Sean doesn’t know and he even had one for a pet.
We visit the bullet shape Bonnefantanmuseum whose collection intermingles classical and contemporary art. Golden paintings of saints on wooden panels, religious alterpieces and reliquaries of carved wood, gilded copper and enamel inlays feature from the 14th to the 16th centuries, there are some works by Bruegal the Younger from the 16th century and Rubens and Van Dyck pieces from the 17th. Then there is a wide assortment of 20th century art and 21st century art. Franz West (1947-) has a work called Leviten (1996) which is a pretty much a room full of black and white chaise lounges. The audio guide said that West wants art to be real, wants people to be able “to get into it, to sit on it, lie on it”. So I am the only person in my room and I plonk myself on one of the artworks – very comfortable, I stretch out my legs. Sean walks into the room after me, gives me a look like “What are you doing? Are you crazy?” I just smile at him and he runs away, thinking he doesn’t want to be around when I get reprimanded by museum security. I have to run after him to tell him it’s OK; you are allowed to sit on the artwork.
Inspired by the turtles doing nothing in the sun, we pull up a couple of chairs at a cafe´ by the River Mass and drink Rose´ which is quite a trendy summer drink in Holland. A few cafe’s away, a live daggy Dutch pop singer sings Dutch lyrics to decades old tunes and despite it’s lack of funkiness, we are in the chill zone. When our cheeks feel warm from the sun or the wine we gather ourselves to gether and fall asleep on the train back to The Hague.
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