Scenes from Valkenburg, Holland

Gert, responding to Di's nagging  loving request, planned a trip for us in Valkenburg, Holland. The city is the site of caves, created by the Romans when they were gathering stone for their building projects. They also served as bunkers during WWII.  Today the city holds a Christmas market in them.

We knew the caves would be intriguing, but the charm of the town itself was an unexpected bonus.

Thanks Gert and Di for warm memories of a cold December day.

December 18, 2007

Comments

[furiousBall]

what a beautiful town! I saw some of the trip mentioned at Di's blog too.

[Manictastic]

Well, it's in the Flemish bit of Holland, so of course it's gorgeous. (Oh boy, I'm being patriotic) The caves are kool. :D And it was so very very cold today (and I had the clever idea to use my bike for once today, my poor body)

[Lynn]

How gorgeous! How nice to spend time in such a beautiful place with good friends!

[Expat-CIT]

Valkenburg was the very first place I visited in Europe, and I so enjoyed seeing the beautiful stone on the streets and buildings. Thanks for the little trip down memory lane!

[Claudia]

Oh V...........* sighs * I MISS Europe SO much!!!!

[Nance]

That yellow building is so charming. Love the photos. Thanks for posting them.

[Peter]

You know V, I've been to Valkenburg before (well, shopping and sight-seeing), but somehow I never ended up in the caves, and I sure didn't know they were a featured attraction during the Christmas season.

The nearer a place, the more I tend to take it for granted. Great shots!

[Tj]

FWIW
This is completely off topic, but I felt a need to post.

All the negative comments regarding San Antonio upset me. I post from a free internet connection in an independent coffee shop I frequent before and after work. The owner provides this connection to help compete with the chains that provide free WiFi. I have spent lots of time talking to her. She knows most of her customers pretty well. "Jen" is a regular customer and a student at the Southwest School of Arts and Crafts. "wf" was a regular, too. He recently graduated from a local college and has returned to his hometown. I came upon this site from another expat blog that was left open on this computer. Perhaps from wf's research.

[Amber]

Wow, this is really cool! How charming. I can never get over how people in Europe live with so much really, really "OLD". I don't know why that fascinates me so much. Just the idea of all the stories that came before, and then being one more yoruself, maybe.

Thanks for sharing.

[V-Grrrl]

Tj,

Thanks so much for shedding light on that situation. Sorry you (and others) were inadvertently caught up in it. The pattern of posts, traffic, and IP addresses was suspicious. I didn't have an identity or e-mail address for you and as recent events have illustrated, I can't always trust commenters, especially anonymous ones.

If only I could install a fruitcake filter on my site, this all could have been avoided. : )

If you'd like to discuss this further off line, e-mail me.

[Elisabeth]

Absolutely lovely, V. Although I am from northern France, I have never been to the Netherlands, and will make it a point to spend some time there very soon! Thanks for having posted those photos.

[Di]

I didn't nag woman, I just said we needed to go someplace nice to make up for Amsterdam and he mentioned the caves and I merely kept him on task ... and voila, he loved the place too :)

[V-Grrrl]

Laughing, Miss Di, over the idea that your man needs help staying on task. (She snorts!)

The truth: the TWO of you made a great team in finding such a cool destination.

Of course, Gert wasn't under any pressure: "You need to find something special! Every day she has left in Belgium has to be wonderful now, you know."