Maastricht is a unique city in Netherlands because it’s at the southernmost point of the country, way down by Belgium, by Germany, close to France even, and so the culture down here is little bit different than you find in the north and the west of the Netherlands.
It’s a very cosmopolitan city. It’s got that typical pedestrians zone with many little lanes just for people, no cars allowed, a lot of restaurants and cafés, there is the historic sites, the churches, there’s an old fortification and medieval walls around part of the city, and there’s a variety of other touring activities.
The main pedestrian street is Grote Staat. It goes right to the heart of Maastricht and it’s all for pedestrian, it's bicycles, people walking their dog, people out shopping. This evening it's about 7 PM we're getting twilight already. It's a Thursday, shops are open until nine on Thursdays, otherwise generally closing at 6 PM. So Thursday night is a great time to be out walking. And this is September, late September, the weather is unusually warm. For this whole month it’s been just perfect so that might be a the time for you to consider coming to visit the Netherlands.
It's an area for pedestrians and bicycles, for baby carriages, for people walking their dogs, but no cars loud here in this central shopping area of historic Maastricht.
It’s a pretty extensive zone that goes for dozens of blocks and with two main squares that are connected by the lovely pedestrian lanes. Naturally most of the shops are clothing stores but there’s a variety of other kind, there is the art galleries, sundries, there are cafés, there are always the bakeries, and the bar on the corner, there’s a few modern shopping malls tucked away in here as well too, beautiful Maastricht
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