If you live in the Schinnen / Brunssum area you live close to one of the coolest cities in Europe. Maastricht is the oldest city in The Netherlands (Nijmegen makes a similar claim but it was uninhabited for a long time so Maastricht is at least the oldest continuously inhabited city). Maastricht suffered little damage during WWII and has, therefore, a very well preserved Centrum or Old Town section. The Wikipedia entry for Maastricht is pretty good so I'll forego the complete history. Maastricht History
I go to Maastricht fairly often and it is a "Must see" place when people come to visit. Maastricht is divided by the Maas river and both parts of the city go back several hundred years. The original Roman garrison, protecting the bridge crossing the river, was established on the west side in 50 AD. Maastricht is easy to get to using A79 or A2. The Ring road system can be confusing so the best thing to do is use your GPS. The most central parking garage is the Vrijthof and the address there is: Vrijthof 100, 6211 LE Maastricht. This underground garage is under the Centrum but it is also expensive at €2.20 / 1 hour or €22.00 / day. There is slightly cheaper parking way outside the centrum. Go to this website to find other parking possibilities: Maastricht Parking
There is no free parking in Maastricht but if you have the means you could park outside the city and bike in.
Maastricht is a walker friendly city. Much of the old town center is closed to motor vehicles during the shopping hours. The walkways and roads are cobblestone, which might be difficult for small-wheeled strollers or high heels. There are dozens of places to eat and even though it is a tourist area the prices are not too bad. Of course that depends on your tastes. If you just need some nourishment (cheap food) look for one of the many bakeries that also makes sandwiches. Boterham is the generic word for a sandwich but what you'll see more often is broodjeham or broodjekaas. Ham is ham and kaas is cheese. What my wife and I did was order one of each and then swap a slice of ham and cheese from each so we both then had a ham&cheese sandwich. Hema stores usually have a cafe counter inside and they are usually very reasonable. Or maybe you want to act as a local and sit at an outside cafe and have a slice of vlaai and a coffee.
There are several museums in Maastricht but I have not yet been to any, shame on me. But I have been in all the churches and those are well worth seeing if you are interested in gothic churches. Maastricht was once a fortified city and there are several places where you can see the remains of the defenses. The old town area was once inside a defensive wall and parts of that are still visible. This dates back to the 13th century. Unfortunately, Maastricht greatly expanded in the early 1900's and much of the old wall and the city gates were destroyed. There is only one gate left. Hells Gate is part of the original city wall, built after Henry I, Duke of Brabant, gave permission for its construction in April 1229. It is the only remaining city gate in Maastricht and the oldest city gate in the Netherlands. For about two centuries, the gate was part of the city's actual fortifications. It lost this function when the Nieuwstad (New City), the area south of the gate, was surrounded by a wall in the second half of the 15th century. It was then used for various purposes: a meeting place for the cloth fullers or walkers, an armory, a powder storehouse and a residence. This is located at St. Bernardusstraat 24b.
On 25 June 1673, while preparing to storm the city, Captain-Lieutenant Charles de Batz de Castelmore, also known as Comte d'Artagnan, was killed by a musket shot outside Tongerse Poort. This event was immortalized in the Alexandre Dumas novel "The Vicomte de Bragelonne", part of the D'Artagnan Romances (the Three Musketeers). There is a monument to him near Waldeck Bastion.
Fort Hooge (High Fort) is located on the edge of town off
NOTE: I found this in my Drafts box, for some reason I never finished writing this post. So here it is, incomplete.
