When we got back from London, we had orientation in Maastricht and then our program took us on a day trip. First we went to an American war cemetery about 20 minutes away. I didn't take any pictures, but the white crosses on the snowy field were so beautiful. But it was COLD.
'
Little did we know there was a lot more cold to come. We arrived in Valkenburg and ate lunch in a cave, so that was cool. Then before we realized it, we're on a two hour walking tour of a town we had just learned the name of, so it was a little hard to be enthusiastic about some dinky town we knew nothing about. But our tour guide, Vivian made up for it. She was such a sweet lady. At the very beginning of the tour she had us all in tears telling us about her father's four years in a concentration camp. He had escaped, but out of desperation returned to what meager food was available there. His decision to come back closely coincided with the camp's liberation, so it was such a powerful story!! Around Valkenburg we saw the remains of the castle and other old cathedrals and buildings. It was pretty, but my toes hurt.
After our walking tour, we got to see a replica of the Roman catacombs. This was fascinating, but strange that someone would go to such an extent to replicate the real ones.
'Remaining castle walls
Virgin and baby Jesus figurine in the hole
from a bomb blast
Entrance to the catacombs
Sweet Alex, roomie bear, and I
Painting inside the catacombs
It was fun to see another little Dutch town, but I'm sure I would've enjoyed it much more on another, warmer day!
Comments
Post a Comment