{"id":1444,"date":"2019-09-27T14:24:24","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T21:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.wordpress.com\/?p=1444"},"modified":"2024-09-30T22:15:20","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T05:15:20","slug":"valkenburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.ca\/?p=1444","title":{"rendered":"Valkenburg"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:20px\">The first three nights of our Netherlands\/Belgium trip my friend Kathy and I spent in a village called Valkenburg in the little hanging down part of the Netherlands squished between Belgium and Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:20px\">Valkenburg sits between the Dutch towns of Maastricht and Heerlen, a ten minute train ride from both. We randomly selected it because we thought Maastricht was too big and expensive to stay in, and it turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. Unbeknownst to us, it is a popular local tourist destination and is blessed with at least one restaurant per resident!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/09\/30-valkenburg-train-station.jpg\" alt=\"30 Valkenburg Train Station\" class=\"wp-image-1458\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:20px\">Our spacious apartment (probably more square footage than my condo!) in the Hotel Valkenhof sat above the hotel restaurant called Meat@Valkenhof.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/09\/04-valkenburg-hotel-valkenhof-view.jpg\" alt=\"04 Valkenburg Hotel Valkenhof view\" class=\"wp-image-1447\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/09\/02-valkenburg-hotel-valkenhof-room.jpg\" alt=\"02 Valkenburg Hotel Valkenhof room\" class=\"wp-image-1449\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:20px\">Our initial plans were to go to &nbsp;Heerlen, Tongeren and possibly Leige but jet-lag zapped our energy and we stayed in Valkenburg the first day, visiting some replica Roman Catacombs and walking around town.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/09\/35-valkenburg-river-margo.jpg\" alt=\"35 Valkenburg River Margo\" class=\"wp-image-1454\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/09\/31-valkenburg-soldier-kathy-margo.jpg\" alt=\"31 Valkenburg Soldier Kathy Margo\" class=\"wp-image-1455\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/09\/25-valkenburg-men.jpg\" alt=\"25 Valkenburg Men\" class=\"wp-image-1456\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:20px\">The catacombs were dug into an old abandoned mine 100 years ago by a local man who loved the catacombs in Rome and wanted to bring them to Valkenburg. We had a tour in Dutch, with the guide throwing us a sentence or two in English every so often. &nbsp;Another woman on the tour, taking pity on us, starting translating for us. There was a replica statue of St. Cecilia that I recognized from the Church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere in Rome, so I was able to tell Kathy that Cecilia&#8217;s face wasn&#8217;t visible because she had been decapitated.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/09\/13-valkenburg-roman-catacombs-st.-cecilia.jpg\" alt=\"13 Valkenburg Roman catacombs St. Cecilia\" class=\"wp-image-1459\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:20px\"><span style=\"color: var(--color-text);\">Day Two we only managed to get to Heerlen for a visit to the Roman Bath ruins at the Thermenmusuem.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/09\/26.3-heerlen-thermenmuseum-margo.jpg\" alt=\"26.3 Heerlen Thermenmuseum Margo\" class=\"wp-image-1460\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/09\/26-heerlen-thermenmuseum-kathy-archeologist.jpg\" alt=\"26 Heerlen Thermenmuseum Kathy archeologist\" class=\"wp-image-1461\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/09\/15-heerlen-thermenmuseum-furnace.jpg\" alt=\"15 Heerlen Thermenmuseum Furnace\" class=\"wp-image-1462\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:20px\">Surprisingly there were no mosaics at the Heerlen, aka <em>Coriovallum,&nbsp;<\/em>baths, except for a small section of flooring. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ll be able to provide many moments of mosaics from this trip. Any suggestions for substitutes?&nbsp;<em>Your moments of Belgium beer? chocolates? waffles? Or biking?&nbsp;<\/em>Please send ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:20px\">Now here it is your one and possibly only moment of mosaic.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/09\/16-heerlen-thermenmuseum-mosaic-piece.jpg\" alt=\"16 Heerlen Thermenmuseum Mosaic piece\" class=\"wp-image-1464\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first three nights of our Netherlands\/Belgium trip my friend Kathy and I spent in a village called Valkenburg in the little hanging down part &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-the-netherlands"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1444"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2112,"href":"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444\/revisions\/2112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musingsandmosaics.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}