The Catcher in the Sand

A city with a history of at least two thousand years, Maastricht hosts a number of remarkable churches, witnesses of history and centers of spirituality of a city which is not only located in the center of Europe but also at the crossroads of the Christian faiths in Western Europe.

Basilica of Our Lady

The oldest church in town was built by the first bishop of Maastricht, Saint Servatius at the end of the 4th century. It was located at the place of an old Roman temple, at the place were today we find the two-towered building of the Basilica of Our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwebasiliek).

Star of the Sea

Much of the exterior structure of the present building was raised in the 11th and 12th century. A beautiful statue of the Madonna Star of the Sea is said to hold miraculous powers and is taken out in processions in the streets of the city once a year.

inside the Basilica of Our Lady

The interior of the church is rather dark and sober, yet powerful and elegant, in Gothic style.

Saint John the Baptist and Saint Servatius Churches

The Vrijthof square in the center of the city is sided by another two imposing churches. One of them is the protestant church of Saint John the Baptist (Sint-Janskerk). It’s imposing red tower is the tallest in the city and offers the best perspective for the audacious who climb its more than 200 stairs, but the interior is less than impressing.

galleries inside Saint Servatius Church

It is the Catholic church of Saint Servatius that catches the attention of the visitors and remains in memory as the more exquisite monument of religious architecture in Maastricht. It is a complex structure of church, chapels and cloisters reflecting a long history and a combination of styles from Romanesque to Gothic until more recent elements.

Shrine of Saint Servatius

The church is built around the grave of Armenian-born Saint Servatius who died and was buried here in 384, during the reign of byzantine emperor Theodosius and his tentative to reunite the Roman empire under the rule of Christianity. The grave of Servatius is located under the floor of the church, while a splendid golden-plated shrine can be seen in the museum.

Interior (nave) of Saint Servatius Church

The interior of the church belongs to the Baroque period.

stained-glass windows at Saint Servatius Church

Exquisite stained-glass windows have been created along the time, from the Gothic to the more recent periods.

Jerusalem Mosaic in Saint Servatius Church

The latest additions are the backdoor gate and the beautiful mosaic in front of it, with a representation of Jerusalem.

Selexyz Dominicanen - the most beautiful bookshop in the world

I could not end my tour of the churches in Maastricht without entering the bookshop that the British newspaper The Guardian put at the top of its list of the most beautiful bookshop in the world. It is located very close to the Vrijthof square, in a former Dominican church.

the bookshop church in Maastricht

The combination of the elegant arches of the former church with the three levels of the bookshop full is indeed unique. The spirituality of the former house of God is preserved and amplifies the force embedded in the endless number of book on the shelves. This renovation and second life of the former church is a daring and successful idea.

The 78th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force was hold in the heart of Europe – in the city of Maastricht, the Netherlands.

the IETF at the MECC

The venue of the meeting was The Maastricht Exhibition & Congress Center (MECC) not far from the place where in 1992 the treaty that defined the European Union and the creation of the Euro currency was signed. The location is a little remote from the center of the city, but frankly speaking the 20 to 30 minutes walk at night after dinner from the center to the nearby hotels did us just good, and the free pass that was granted to the IETF participants on buses during the week helped the lazy ones.

one shore of the Maas ...

The name of the city derives from the Maas (Meuse) river that crosses the city. The place is inhabited at least from the times of the Romans.

... and the other

The history of the city includes several interesting episodes. Good chances are that you have read about it during your childhood if you have read Alexandre Dumas’ novels. The death of d’Artagnan – the hero made immortal by Dumas happened during the siege of Maastricht by Louis XIV’s armies. The story is told in Dumas’ novel The Vicomte of Bragelonne.

the city seen from above ...

The city has many beautiful churches and at least two of them are outstanding. I will tell more about them and also bring up some pictures in one of the coming episodes.

... and down in the streets, at day ...

I love wandering on the streets of European cities like Maastricht.

... and at night

They are beautiful at day and at night.

terraces in the Vrijthof square

The week I spent in Maastricht was a pleasant summer week, following a wave of heat which had made the atmosphere challenging they week before (as we were told). The few showers were short and just cleaned the air. We could spent some of the evening dinners on terraces like the one in the Vrijthof square …

the Town Hall in Markt Square

… or the ones in the Markt Square.

a city of statues

Adding beauty to the picturesque streets are the statues that can be found in Maastricht at the crossroads or even on the sides of the streets. Most of them are not big in dimensions, in many cases at human sizes and proportions allowing for an feeling of intimacy and belonging to be established between the statues and the street walker.

Johannes Petrus Minckelers

One of the few that look at visitors from a pedestal is the statue in Markt Square of Johannes Petrus Minckelers, the inventor of the illuminating gas, who holds an eternal flame in his hand reminding all about his invention.

bycicles, bycicles

As in many other places in the Netherlands bicycles are a preferred means of transport. Locals are bicycling to work, to recreation, or to their commuting train stations.

the police orchestra plays for the IETF

The social event is the one moment of recreation that happens on Tuesdays of the IETF meetings allowing for a change of atmosphere and pace for the big heads who build and run the Internet.

rocking the boat at the IETF Social

The social at this meeting was organized on the boats near the river (who are used during the day for the tourist rides on the Maas). We had fanfare music, we had rock music played from the high deck of the boats, we had even tribal drums by the end. Food, wine and especially beer ran free, but beer will be the subject of a dedicated later episode.

The last episode of the Maltese travel notes is dedicated to the former capital of Malta – Mdina and the adjoining village of Rabat. We visited them in our last full day on the island.

the old city of Mdina

Mdina was populated as early as the year 700 BC and may have been founded by the Phoenicians. It was the capital of the island until after the Grand Siege, when the knights moved their principal institutions in the fortified city of Valletta.

Mdina Main Gate

The city today has no more than 300 inhabitants, but the surrounding Rabat has a population of 11,000. The entrance to the city is made through a spectacular gate, more beautiful than the access gate in Valletta.

in the streets of the old city of Mdina

The old city offers the traditional views of narrow streets in former medieval city. A tourist accustomed with the old city of Jerusalem will not feel displaced here at all.

knights are still walking the streets

There is a lot of tourist exploitation going on in the old city. Photo opportunities with armored knights is one of them.

St. Paul's Cathedral

The most important building in the city is the imposing Cathedral of the Conversion of Saint Paul. Saint Paul is the patron of Malta. Arrested in Jerusalem in the year 60 for preaching the new Christian faith through the Eastern part of the Roman empire he was sent to trial to Rome, but on its way to the capital of the world at that time the ship was wrecked and Paul saved himself on the island, living according to the legend in a grotto in Rabat. He converted the governor and thus introduced Christianity to the island, but later was captured again and sent to Rome to be killed during the reign of Nero.

interior of the St. Paul's cathedral

The current impressing building was built in Baroque style by the end of the 17th century, after an earthquake destroyed a previous church built by the Normans on the same place. Here took place the inauguration ceremonies of the Grand Masters of the knights Order of Saint John.

floor of the St. Paul Cathedral

We had the last opportunity to admire here the tombs on the floor of the cathedral, specific to the religious art of Malta.

dome of Saint Paul's Cathedral

The decoration of the church is due to a large extent to the Calabrese painter Mattia Preti, among other beautiful frescoes depicting episodes from the life of Saint Paul.

Madonna and Child icon (13th century)

An old icon of Madonna and Child is one of the beautiful objects of art saved from the previous church destroyed in the quake.

Mosaic in the Roman Domus

another Mosaic in the Roman Domus

Out of the city of Mdina we visited the principal objectives in Rabat, the adjoining village. One of them is the Roman Domus, actually a 20th century reconstruction of a Roman villa, hosting a beautiful museum on the ruins of a 1st century townhouse built during the Roman epoch. The mosaics are exquisite, with both decorative motives as well as figurative symbolic representations.

statue of Claudius - Roman Domus

Among the statues a splendid statue of emperor Claudius.

theatrical masks - Roman Domus

Theatrical masks remind one of the favorite pastimes of the Roman inhabitants of the place.

Saint Paul's Catacombs

Saint Paul's Catacombs - 2

One almost mandatory stop in Rabat are the Roman catacombs, named somehow inaccurately Saint Paul Catacombs. They do not have too much with Saint Paul, in reality they were the burial places of the city of Mdina for a few centuries, as Roman law forbid burial inside the city. Today they are well within the streets of Rabat, but then they were safely remote from the walls of Mdina.  The underground labyrinth of corridors and burial chambers may have some macabre fascination, but it’s not my preferred kind of visiting objective.

the train does not come today

We did not miss the touristic minicar train ride of the city, which took us around the whole Mdina and Rabat and allowed us a few spectacular photo angles. One of the interesting objectives was the deserted train station. There is no train service today in Malta, and no need for one on an island whose diameter is 40 or 50 kilometers at most. Yet the British tried to build one during their rule, but it proved to be totally uneconomic and was abandoned after the second world was.

That was our last day in Malta. Early next morning Mr. David, the hotel driver took us back to the airport, to start our way home via Athens. It was the end of a visit in an interesting place, very much worth visiting once, probably not more than once.

I have heard for the first time about Gozo when I bought on Amazon one of the tour guides in preparation for the trip. The title was ‘Malta and Gozo’. What in the world is Gozo, I asked myself. The answer is of course that Malta is an archipelago, and Gozo is the second island in size (67 square kilometers) and a population of 31,000 inhabitants out of the about 400,000 total population of Malta. The third one in size if you ask has a population of six (one is a policeman, crime rate must be high).

the ferryboat to Gozo

The connection between the island of Malta and Gozo is by means of ferryboat. It’s not necessarily my preferred travel experience, although the ferry between the two Maltese islands seems well run and maintained, I was lucky to see Polanski’s Ghost Writer only after this trip.

the harbor of Mgarr

We took a organized trip, which is probably best to see Gozo, and one day is more than sufficient. The minibus waited for us at the harbor of Mgarr, which has a spectacular location, very Mediterranean in style.

the dome of Xewkija

The first stop was in the village of Xewkija, where the driver and guide of our tour was living. The village has a population of 3000 and a Rotunda church with a dome larger in size than the one of St. Paul’s in London.

admire God's creation

A welcome sign at the entry of the church invited us inside.

inside the Rotunda church of Xewkija

It is in fact man’s creation dedicated to God, rather than God’s creation. I have already written about the deep catholic feelings of the Maltese, and the church in Xewkija is a good exemplification. It was built during 20 years, between 1951 and 1971 and was all funded from money coming from the Catholic community of the village. All 3000 inhabitants have room in the church at the big events of the Catholic calendar.

stained-glass window in Xewkija

Not only its size, but also many of the interior decoration and pieces of religious art are remarkable. Of course, it is not the first church on this place, several other preceded it in the history, and part of the art objects previously used in these churches are preserved in the small museum of the church.

from the roof of the Rotunda church in Xewkija

One can climb the stairs or take the elevator to the roof of the church. The viewer is rewarded with the 360 degrees landscape of a large part of the island.

Gharb folklore museum

Our next stop was in the folklore museum in Gharb. It is quite a typical museum of ethnography, hosted by a 18th century house. The visitor will find here the typical sections in such museums about local crafts and costumes, some interesting, but presented in quite a dusty style.

Gozo wine

We did not have unfortunately the occasion to taste the wines of Gozo, just to photo the stand in a place where they were sold.

Ggigantija

I already wrote in another episode about the megalithic temples of Ggigantija. The island is populated for 5000 years.

Dwejra Bay, Azure window

Our next stop was in the spectacular Dweira bay with the Azure window and the interior lagoon carved in the limestone rock that dominates the geology of the island (as of the whole Malta). It is beautiful, reminding the Rosh HaNikra cave in the North of Israel.

Calypso's Boutique

The island of Gozo is also known as the island of Calypso, so the tour included the place where the legend says the nymph imprisoned Ulysses for seven years. Not too much can be seen there, just the entrance of a cave in a hill by the sea, so I preferred to put here a picture of … Calypso’s Boutique.

John Paul II greets us in Victoria

The capital of Gozo is Victoria, or Rabat as it was known during the Arab rule. The Citadel which is an old city fortification is the tourist center of interest, and this was our last stop on the island.

inside the Gozo Cathedral of Assumption

The Cathedral of Assumption dominates the Citadel. It was built in 1697-1703, by Lorenzo Gafa, and it’s another wonderful piece of religious architecture and includes many of the characteristics of the other churches in Malta, including the elaborated tombs on the floor.

Gozo cathedral - ceiling and trompe-vue

The art of the ceiling with a spectacular trompe-vue impressed me.

good-bye, Gozo

The way back was by ferry-boat again, a 20 minutes trip which brought us back to the main island.

It was not easy to prepare this trip. I usually try to read as much as I can from the Internet, and also buy at least one good tourist guide (green Michelin if possible) if not more than one. No way to find any book on Malta in Israel, not even in the ‘Memsi’ (the Israeli Automobile Club, peer of the AAA) stores. I was not more successful in the first few bookstores I entered in the US. It’s only by ordering on Amazon that I could eventually buy the two books (one coming with a good map as well) that I used during the trip.

This actually tells part of the story of the Maltese tourism and economy. Also Malta welcomes more than one million tourists a year for a population of 400,000 inhabitants, and although tourism is the #1 source of income for the Maltese economy the archipelago is still not only minuscule on the map but also unknown or at best little publicized on the boards of the holiday agents in Europe and world-wide. The level of services is somehow lower than for example in the Greek islands, but then the concentration of landscape and history is at least equal, and there is vicious circle that waits to be broken. More tourists would mean more money which would mean more and new services and infrastructure.  Also bigger crows, too big maybe? It is a small island and there is a limit in the capacity of the incoming flow. Yet, my feeling is that the breakthrough in the Maltese tourism is yet to come. Most of the tourists, by the way, are coming from the UK attracted by the English-speaking tradition and the driving on the correct side of the road – but I could see many Italian, German, Spaniards. And yes, Valletta was quite crowded even in the out-of-season first days of April.

What about the rest of the economy? With limited resources of water Malta cannot ensure more than 20% of its food. Vegetable gardens and cereal fields are visible, but the agricultural surface is limited. Local limestone is used for construction works and it’s yellow surfaces provide the appearance and ‘local color’ of the buildings. The strategic position at the crossroad of the Mediterranean naval roads and two hospitable harbor areas in the North and in the South of the island made of Malta a good place for naval workshops. However this industry decreased since the British naval basis left the area, and the tentative of turning them into aircrat repairs shops seems to have only partially succeeded.

Malta Story

So what’s left? of course, the factories of dreams – the film industry. Natural and historical landscape, English speaking teams, lots of extras with little work to do and plenty of time to spend on the set, the sea around – all these make of Malta the ideal place to make historical, or adventure, or aquatic films. ‘Malta Story’ with Alec Guiness and ‘Spartacus’ with Kirk Douglas are just two of the classical films made in Malta. MFS (the Meditarenean Film Studios) are well known in the industry. I did not get to visit them, but I heard that the sea film studios are unique. For a compensation in the coffee-shop in Mosta where we stopped in the first day and from where we watched part of the Easter parade the walls were decorated with the posters of many of the classical films ‘Made in Malta’.

Spartacus

Here are a few picturesque, funny, intriguing pictures I took today while strolling through Rome. It’s my second time in the Eternal city, and there is an advantage in getting back to a place you like. No need to run to see the musts any longer, you can enjoy the landscape and the people and focus on a few things that HAPPEN rather than things that ARE (in this case a fabulous exhibition with the paintings of Caravaggio at the Quirinale – thanks, again Marica!

I met for example the invisible man …

… and two dalmatians, a lady and a van who turned the back to me at the same time.

I photographed the narrow streets of Rome that I love …

… as well as the exclusive gallery now renamed after Alberto Sordi.

I looked for the silhouette of Saint Peter’s at day from the Quirinale …

… and at night from the top of the Spanish Stairs.

I saw precious or at least expensive old Russian icons in an antiquarian shop …

… as well as cheap art in Piazza Navona …

… and tomorrow it’s another day!