Maastricht, the
capital of the province of Limburg in the Netherlands and the birthplace of
the
European Union, is a really nice city. It straddles the Maas River where the
Jeker River joins it, providing lovely views of the river from the many bridges.
Maastricht is much smaller, cleaner and nicer than Amsterdam although it has
its full complement of bicycles; fortunately, the riders here are much more
polite. This is a very historic town with 1677 national heritage sites within
its borders, and although we didn’t see them all, we enjoyed many of them. The
town still has a part of its original wall, connected to Hell’s gate, which
dates from the 1200s and is the oldest city gate in the Netherlands. Early on
Maastricht was conquered by the Romans, but later became a religious center and
finally an industrial city. It was also the site of this year’s International Association of School
Librarianship (IASL) 44th Annual International Conference and the 17th
International Forum on Research in School Librarianship. Hearing the research
at these meetings is always enlightening, as is getting to speak with the
people conducting the studies. It’s also a lot of fun to reconnect with folks I
haven’t seen in a year and to meet new people interested in how learners use
the library resources.
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| Hell's Gate built in 1229 |
