Correct. However, it is an* awesome* two hour train trip from Amsterdam to Maastricht, especially if you travel in the two-level trains and sit in the upper level. As a tour of the Netherlands as a country, it doesn’t get any better or more convenient.
As polar bear said, if you get in in Amsterdam, you don’t have to change trains or carriages, as long as you sit in the front carriage. If you’re not sure and don’t understand the Ducht broadcasts in the train, just ask anyone. The train splits about 20 minuts before you arrive in Maastricht.
Antwerp, Brussels and Cologne are bustling modern cities with tiny remains in the city center of the old towns they once were. Maastricht, Ghent and Bruges, however, are almost museum towns. There are much more old buildings, old street plans, etc, beautifully interwoven with some modern buildings. Maastricht does the old/new combination the best of the three, I think, but I’m biased. Aachen is in between: a small city, with an old center and an awesome old cathedral, reigning site and burial place of Charlemagne the Great.
Nah, it’s unbiasedly true: Maastricht does the old/new thing very well. It’s a beautiful place, and very different from the rest of the Netherlands. When I’m there it feels like being on holiday, it’s so un-Dutch.
Also true that Antwerp, Brussels and Cologne don’t have much left of their original beauty, but they are still really fun cities to see. I just recently visited Cologne (with some excellent Doper advice and a mini-mini-Dopefest thrown in) and it was amazing. Cologne is a fantastic city with a great vibe and loads going on. However, for a super fast tour of that side of Europe it may not be first on the list.
I am a huge fan of Berlin and always suggest it for people traveling to Europe, but in your case - pass.
Berlin is worth more than one or two days, and you simply don’t have the time. I suppose if I were living there now, I could give you the fast tour - but it would be such a blur that you would only remember it when you got home and looked at the pictures.
With such a short trip, I would probably just stay in Amsterdam and do a few side day trips.
I always give the example: Imagine if you were a European coming the the US for six days in February - how many cities could you/would you visit and have a “vacation”? That should give you pause about trying to cover so much territory, and see so much, in such a short period of time.
Have a great trip - and don’t forget to report back and let us know how it went!
Also - can anyone recommend a good website for learning Tourist Dutch, preferably with audioclips so I don’t butcher the pronounciation? Things like, “Hello,” “My name is,” “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Dutch - do you speak English?” etc.
I’m also not even remotely above wanting to learn a bit of Bar Dutch - “You’re very pretty,” “can I buy you a drink?”, or whatever else fits in the local cultural convention.
Oh - and if I could mooch off the Teeming Millions a bit more: Does anyone have a favorite English-language history of the Netherlands? Survey-level is fine (preferable, really) - I don’t need to be an expert, but I like to know a bit of the history of a place I’m visiting.
Yeah, the only people in Holland who don’t speak English are tourists
So some German or French would serve you better,
Shame they didn’t translate “van null tot nu” a Dutch comic about the History of the Netherlands, most of my knowledge of Dutch history comes from reading it when I was a kid
