My most loved festivity is almost over! I hope everyone has had a very happy time with their families and loved ones! In The Netherlands it’s the Second Day of Christmas today, which means I’m still “allowed” to post one more Christmas related post.  In this post, I will share some photos of my visit with a friend to the Christmas Market in Maastricht. I had visited Maastricht once before to visit another friend who was studying there. This time the purpose of the day trip was only to visit the Christmas Market and not any of the sights – although I couldn’t resist running in and out one of the most beautiful book stores in the world.

Magical Maastricht

On any other day the small side alleys and cute vintage shops would make a worthwhile day trip. I’m sure that I will make my way there once more to provide more information on tourist attractions – Lauren from “Never Ending Footsteps” described a tourist run through the city which I would love to try – for now these pictures should suffice to give you a good idea of the beauty of this Southern city.

Christmas Market

The Christmas Market is located on a huge square called Vrijthof. This Market offers a good amount of food – poffertjes, Reibenkuchen, crepes, etc -, the right amount of activities – a slide for kids, ice skating rink and Ferris Wheel -, and finally the lights and music give it the correct dose of Christmas atmosphere.

Ferris Wheel

My friend and I decided to give the Ferris Wheel a try. It cost 4 euro per person, but it was totally worth it because the view is magnificent, especially in the evening when all the lights are on.

Food and Drink

We tried a lot of different foods at the Christmas Market in Maastricht, although this time I stayed away from the mulled wine. In my previous post about the Christmas Markets in Düsseldorf I mentioned that I wanted to try Reibenkuchen and I found this snack in Maastricht. I’m happy I only ordered one instead of the whole portion (three) because its a deep-fried potato which seems to contain much more fat than fries. It’s nice, but even this small one was a bit too much.

We wanted to have some poffertjes (little fluffy pancakes), but the guy cooking them was rubbing his sweaty face with his hand before removing the cooked poffertjes from his fork with the same hand. So we had a crepe instead from a different stall. My friend also ordered chocolate covered fruit on a stick.

You’d think that we had our fill after all these dishes, but we did have dinner at a cute little restaurant in Koestraat, called Taverna La Vaca. They offer delicious tapas-like dishes from all over Southern Europe. We had potatoes, tomato salad, grilled veggies and I had the venison steak. Delicious!

Conclusion

I haven’t visited many Christmas Markets and the one in Maastricht was the only one I visited in The Netherlands, but in my humble opinion it’s very worthwhile to make a day trip there. My friend and I only spent a short time at the Christmas Market and a long time at the shops, because that’s another thing Maastricht is good for, shopping there is amazing! If you’re planning to visit Amsterdam, you might want to sneak in a one or two day trip to Maastricht to see another side of The Netherlands.

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas!