Let me start this post saying that if you’ve never visited Maastricht then you shouldn’t wait even a day longer!
My own visit to this jewel of a city came about completely by chance, one of those things that happens when you’ve been chatting to a friend from your Erasmus year. I got in touch with my friend Valeria, who lives in Milan, because I was organising a trip to go there. However, it turned out that Valeria was spending a few months in Holland for work . I ended up buying tickets to Milan and to Eindhoven. It was the perfect opportunity to go back to the Netherlands – I’d been meaning to return for ages. Valeria warned me that I would fall in love with Maastricht and she was right, but I didn’t think that I would leave the city with such a feeling of inner peace. The capital of Limburg province feels like a city in miniature, with narrow and silent streets that will make you feel like you’re in a fairytale.
In reality everything is really close together and easy to get to, but I thought it might be nice to book on a free walking tour – and in fact it was a very good idea. The guy who organise it is an official city guide and the tour was lovely.
Something peculiar in Maastricht are its churches reborn for a different use: church/hotel, church/gym, church/party venue and, the most famous: church/book shop/cafe. Simply amazing!
Naturally the visit would not have been complete without a good brunch, or in this case, a full breakfast. In Maastricht I only found one place that offers brunch with typical dishes, but it seemed a bit expensive to me and I opted for something a little different but very close to a brunch. My search led me to Livin’ Room, a cafe which, as the name suggests, makes you feel like you are sitting in your own living room – or, depending on your point of view, in a design store.
I was very lucky to visit Maastricht on a 3rd of April with warm temperature, which allowed us to enjoy our brunch in the garden.
The Livin’Room offers food and drink with no artificial sweeteners and which are generally prepared with organic and local products. We asked for a “full breakfast” and a salmon sandwich. The full breakfast option included tea or coffee, a small apple juice, slices of whole-grain bread, two kinds of cold meat, two types of cheese, spinach leaves, butter, jam, boiled egg and yoghurt with fruit.
The sandwich contained spinach, organic salmon mixed with yoghurt, red onions, chives, chili and dill.
It was all incredibly tasty, and I couldn’t finish the full breakfast because I was so full! One little warning – if you like to pay by card, you should know that they accept Mastercard but not Visa.
If you want to get away for a weekend, Maastricht is the perfect destination!
