If the Protestant north is famous for its work ethic, then the Catholic south in the province of Limburg is famous for its easygoing nature. Well, relatively — they’re still Dutch.
Many southerners themselves will say that they know how to “enjoy life” more. They eat better, they drink better, and they party better. Every year, people from all over the Netherlands head down south to celebrate the Catholic holiday Carnaval, where people parade out in the street in all sorts of wild costumes just before they’re supposed to behave for Lent. And the number of open-air cafés and restaurants you’ll see while walking around town are a testament to how important enjoying the afternoon is to the local people. In Maastricht, you could visit a different café every day for a year and there would still be places to explore. I’m not exaggerating.
Keeping in line with Dutch pragmatism, a lot of old churches are converted into art galleries, museums, and even bars. In Maastricht, one of the Dominican cathedrals has been converted into a bookstore — “the most beautiful bookstore in the world” according to this source. The place where you would expect to find a church organ is now replaced with an indoor café. You can hear some snide comments about this from the more conservative tourists as they walked inside, but even they managed to find a reason to stay inside.
It’s often said that Maastricht is not like the rest of the Netherlands. Being so close to the Belgian border has left an imprint on the city’s architecture. People will say that the buildings look different, but have a hard time explaining why. The ample amounts of cobblestone and bricks have something do with the different (but still gorgeous) looks. No canals here — just the Meuse river that divides the city center. And if you look far away enough, you can even see hills!
The people in the south even speak Dutch differently, pronouncing g‘s and sch’s with a softer tone, instead of the harsh hacking g’s you’ll find in Utrecht or the rest of the north.
Or perhaps more importantly, Maastricht is famous for its vlaai, or pie. The street right between the train station and the city center has over four different bakeries dedicated to vlaai. I’d go back to the city again just for that. They mostly come in conventional pie flavors, like appel, cherry, rijst, or pudding.
I’ve been told that the appel-kruimeltart with sweet crumbles on top is echt heerlijk, so that will be the first thing I try the next time I visit Maastricht.
