Day Trips - Roermond

I took a day trip to Roermond on Saturday mainly to see what I thought was a full-scale museum called the "Historiehuis". I saw some pictures of it online and thought it would be interesting. The Historiehuis turned out to be a large room inside the city's library at Neerstraat 11. It was a very well done exhibit but I saw everything in about twenty minutes. But luckily, Neerstraat 11 is inside the City Centrum of Roermond and so I toured the rest of the historical "Old Town", as Americans would call it.

Roermond is easy to get to by car or train. By car, head north on highway A2 and then take A73 directly to Roermond. Go to this website to find public parking and addresses to plug into your GPS. You could take a train from Beek, Spaubeek, Schinnen, or Sittard but that will cost you €11.00 - 13.00. If you are going by yourself and you intend to spend the day, the train is the best way to go. Between gas and parking costs driving by yourself would be more expensive.

You can start reading about what there is to see and do in Roermond at the Dutch Tourist bureau VVV site. Go to this LINK. 

The Centrum, or old city center, is quite large and very pedestrian friendly. It is a typical old city layout though (lots of curved streets) and so you can't really go up and down each street like you can with a modern grid layout. It is nice for wandering but you'll probably end up passing by the same place more than once. The main attractions are posted on sign posts, with direction but not distance, at most of the main street corners. There is also a VVV Tourist Office located at Markt 17, 6041 EL Roermond. This is on the main market square near the old Gemeente Huis (City Hall). I didn't go in but most VVV offices have good tourist guides, maps, and books concerning the local area. You can also ask the workers questions on what to see.

I used Dutch the whole day so I don't know how well they do with English here. This was one of the few places where the people I talked to did not switch over to English after talking to them in my limited Dutch. I found everyone to friendly and polite though.

I recommend you visit both the churches in the Centrum; Saint Christopher's Church and Munsterkerk. Munsterkerk was built in the early 1200's and is a good example of a medieval church inside. The interior is beautiful. Both churches have English language pamphlets available that explain the major features of the church.

There is food of every kind and price range available here. I bought fresh squeezed orange juice and fried fish at the market and a small apple pie for dessert at a bakery later. prices were reasonable but I always carry drinks with me since they usually cost too much. There are few public bathrooms so use them when you come across them.

 The architecture of the buildings is fantastic and if you like that sort of thing you can see buildings from the 1200s up to modern times and everything in between. Many of the older buildings have markers that explain when it was built, for whom, and what the building was used for (all in Dutch though). 

All the major store chains are represented as well as lots of mom & pop specialty stores. Roermond also has a Designer Outlet center near the Centrum (Stadsweide 2, 6041 TD Roermond) but I wasn't interested in seeing that. The outlet centers tend to be high end clothing stores and that's not my thing.

There was a small Jewish population in the city off and on over the centuries and I saw their former school and synagogue on Hamstraat down near the train station. You can read about the Roermond Jewish community at this LINK. According to the website there is a small museum in the former synagogue. I didn't know that when I was there but I'll check it out next time I visit Roermond.

All in all I had a good time and ate some good food. There is plenty more for me to see and I look forward to visiting again when the weather is warmer. Roermond is not exactly high on the typical tourist's list of places to see but maybe it should be.