Rebirth of the Eyldergaard Tree

The Eyldergaard Tree Returns

Followers of this blog may remember in May 2007 the local 'Gemeente' decided to brutally savage an ancient tree that stands in the middle of my district of Maastricht, "Eyldergaard".
http://smogsblog70.blogspot.com/2007/05/denise-if-tree.html

It turned out the tree was actually diseased and was about to die anyway. Finally the Gemeente have decided to replace it. It has a long way to go to catch up in size. But it has a very nice birdbox attached. Bonus!

Maastrichts Mooiste

Today my girlfriend and I went on a communial ramble. One thing we always promised not to do. But as this one was so well organised I thought let's give it a go.

The "Maastrichts Mooiste" Week involves walks, runs and various other events. Today was the organised walks. There was a 20K and a 13K walk. Of course we went for the easy one.

The worry was that with 2,000 participants expected it would be too crowded and too full of Dutch walkers with their 'Nordic Sticks' and all the extra kit they think necessary to walk the extreme inclines that you face walking in the famously mountainous country that is Holland.

It didn't turn out too bad apart from the river crossings we had to make where we faced queues of 1hour, 30 mins and 20 mins. The first being run by the local scouts in tiny boats.

Anyway the whole event was well organised and getting 2,000 people across three river crossings in a few hours was no mean feat. They laid on water stops, catering, ice creams and toilets along the way as well as 6 theatre attractions.

Was a very nice route and I have to say Maastricht is quite 'Mooi' but the finish in the ENCI cement quarry is a bit of a contradiction.

TEFAF comes to town

Still missing in action

The TEFAF is back in town and this year they are hitting the headlines before they even started.

A quick reminder for the uninitiated: TEFAF = The European Fine Art Fair. And this year it is scaling the dizzy hights. More money than ever. The city is buzzing with posh cars, suits, limos, posh frocks, and 1000's of frothing mouths from the local supporting business fraternity.

So the fair started today and runs for 10 days and the TEFAF hit the headlines within hours of starting.

On the first day of opening two Mexican men stole a diamond necklace from one of the stands worth 1.2 Million Euros. They were helped by a Costa Rican woman. They were caught at the exit to the exhibition but the necklace wasn't found.

The Dutch media is helping in the case by frequently advertising on the news with any arrivals of Van Gogh, Monet paintings which are selling around the 14-M Euro mark.

Thank god they don't let any rif-raff in.

But yours truly did manage to get a free ticket this year. Valued at 90 Euros.

Best pants on and eat as much as you like before making a quick exit with a diamond necklace.

A report from Dagblad de Limburger : from Saturday.

Dollemansrit eindigt met arrestatie
Een dollemansrit van een dronken automobilist is zaterdag geëindigd met de arrestatie van de 26-jarige Maastrichtenaar. De politie had de bestuurder een stopteken gegeven omdat hij slingerend reed. Maar de man negeerde het bevel en ging er vandoor.
Hij haalde daarbij de gevaarlijkste capriolen uit. Verschillende mensen moesten zichzelf in veiligheid brengen door opzij te springen of hard te remmen. Uiteindelijk kon de politie de man op de Burgemeester Bauduinstraat klemrijden en aanhouden. Daarbij raakte een agent gewond aan zijn hoofd. De Maastricht had niet alleen te veel gedronken, maar had ook een ontzegging van de rijbevoegdheid. De politie zoekt getuigen van de dolle rit, die onder meer over de Terblijterweg en de Czaar Peterstraat ging.

And the fantastic translation site says:

Dollemansrit ends drank is Saturday ended with arrest A dollemansrit of a motorist with the arrest of the 26-birthday Maastrichtenaar. The police had the driver a stopper sign given because he swinging reason. But the man ignored the order and were off. He got near it the most dangerous capriolen out. Different men had to bring to jump itself in safety through aside or to brake hard. Finally the police could the man on the Mayor Bauduinstraat klemrijden and arrest. An agent besides touched wounded its head. The Maastricht had not only too much drunk, but also an ontzegging of the rijbevoegdheid had. The police seeks witnesses of the mad ride that went among many over the Terblijterweg and the Czaar godfather street.

The "Different men had to bring to jump itself in safety through aside or to brake hard." was including me as I had to almost dive to the pavement to avoid the pissed-up driver. Not a nice way to spend your Saturday morning if you have to work.

Postman Postcards #1

I have started taking my camera on my postround as I often see something and wish I had it with me:

Unusual sky over Maastricht as the sight-seeing boats passes the Corversplein

Famous People?

Whilst walking around my 'route de poste' this week I was starting to get annoyed by the names of the streets. The area I deliver to has many streets named after people. But I realised that I didn't know who any of them were.

Antonius Bieleveltstraat
Franciscus Romanusweg
Karel de Vogelstraat
Gebroeders Hermansstraat
Louis Loyensstraat
Matthias Wijnandstraat
Theodoor Schaepkensstraat
Valentijn Clotsstraat
Antoon Lipkensstraat

So 9 names and no clue who one of them is.

Time to do something about it;

Antonius Bielevelt

born in Maastricht in 1576, Bielevelt was an artist. Some of his works can be found in churches in Florence and his materpiece 'The Holy Family' hangs in the Uffici Gallery in Florence.

The Holy Family by Antonius Bielevelt 1644

Franciscus Romanus

born Gent (Belgium) Mar 23rd 1647, Romanus was a laypreacher and architect. He restored the 'Dominican' church in Maastricht and rebuilt the first arch of the Maas Bridge.

In 1865 he went to Paris to restore the Pont Neuf bridge over the Seine, he was also involved with the restoration of Ront Royale over the Seine.

Karel de Vogel

Also an artist born in Maastricht in 1663. He worked mostly in Rome and painted mainly flowers which earned him his Italian name 'Carlo del Fiore'. A lot of his works can be seen in German Museums.

Gebroeders Hermans

The brothers Hermans; Lodewijk and Franciscus Bernadus born both in Maastricht 1750 and 1745 respectively. Both artists. Lodewijk painted still-life, mostly flowers and fruit. In the state archives in Maastricht 8 paintings recovered from the the St. Nicholas Church can be found.

Frank was a art teacher in the Central Latin school of art in Masstricht, where he was well known as an historical artist.

Louis Loyens

Lodewijk (Louis for short) born 1689 in Maastricht, was a magistrate and clerk of the court in Liege. He put together the Chronicals of Maastricht from which all future chronicles were formed.

Matthias Wijnand

born in Maastricht in 1643, Matthias was Canon for the 'St. Servaas' capital. Wijnand left all his worldy goods to the Maastricht students studying Philosophy and Theology in Leuven. This set a precedent and later the Mayor and Priests of the St. Matthias and St. Servaas Churches gave out study finances in honour of his gesture.

Theodoor Schaepkens

born in Maastricht 1810, Theo was also an artist. Scholar of the school for artists in Maastricht, later the Antwerp art academy and later in Italy and France. He painted a great number of historical paintings, portraits, etchings and lithographs.

Valentijn Clots

Clots was a military engineer and produced topographical maps of Maastricht and ink drawings of the city. He was a devotee of East Indian ink and colours made from natural products.

Antoon Lipkens

born in Maastricht 1782, Tony was a civil engineer/surveyor and later became an Engineer/Auditor in Luxembourg. Lipkens was founder of the Delft Academy, today known as Technical University of Delft.

Well now I know. Not sure if I will gain anything from it but.

Marijuana in Maastricht

The Mayor speaks out about the drugs policy in Maastricht. Before he had chance to dye his brows.



And the hip version forthe kids;

Working in the City

I was getting fed up with my first post round and the immense amount of cycling up into the countryside so I took on a city 'round' aswell. And when they offered me the neighbouring section of the city of Maastricht it seemed an easy decision to give suburbia a 'boot' and become a "city boy".



So now I am delivereing post to 2 sections of the centre of Maastricht where I can enjoy the river with the fog in the morning, the sun reflecting off it in the afternoon and the sunsets in the late afternoon (now 5pm).

The best part is that my first round is in 'Wijk' . For me one of the most interesting parts of Maastricht. The best shops, the best restaurants, the best bars, but still not realised by most of the tourist population so it remains pretty quiet most of the time. I deliver to art galleries, restaurants; as in: tapas, Indonesian, Japanese, French, posh 5***** restaurants, designer shops, fetish wear shops, antique book shops, Irish bars....you get the picture. And the fun bit is in this part of town you can't pop the post through the door as the place is normally open so you have to walk in and meet the owners and hand over the post.

The second route is mostly student territory and cheapish housing as far as the centre goes but the 'studes' are also intersperced with the old timers. The other day I had a fascinating conversation with an eighty year old woman about which postal company I worked for. And she told me even though I was still lost and having trouble finding the right postal box : "You are lost but you are living in Holland for more than one week I think.mmmm". Quite flattering considering it's taken 12 years to get such comments. Anyway I plan to have a cuppa with the old bird in the next few weeks as her hobby seems to be to look out for the 'postman' each day.



So I am quite sad to say goodbye to suburbia which I have enjoyed delivering to for the last three months but looking forward to getting to know the city and the people better.

Gronsveld Windmill

Commonly known as the 'Gronsveld Windmill' but it actually stands in the suburb of "De Heeg" in Maastricht.

Margraten

I have recently taken a 2nd post round and have to go to Margraten to pick up my post as the company is too lazy to deliver it t my door. On my first collection I realised I was passing the American cemetery in Margraten so as it was such a nice October day I decided to pop in and have a wander.


The Tower beyond which lies 8,301 WWII dead. ( The 2nd biggest USA memorial in Europe)

The enscription on the tower is:

"Each for his own memorial earned praise that will never
die and with that the grandest of sepulchres not that in which his mortal
bones are laid but a home in the minds of men"







Including 7 Wades:

Twitching

It seems that these days more and more we are having rare breeeds of birds visiting our towns. The Eagle Owl that perched on Middlesbrough town's buildings. Recently my sister told me she saw a Kingfisher in the center of Maastricht. And just yesterday my other half saw a 'Vlaamse Gaai' or as we call it a 'Jay' ouside her office in a built up area of Maastricht.

Vlaamse Gaai (Jay)

Why is this happening?. One reason is the quick availability of food the other is the reduction of their normal habitat through farming.

Yesterday I received a form through the door asking us to sign up to close a local cement quarry in order to reduce noise and dust polution. This was the same quarry I wrote about that boasts the only 'Eagle Owls' except from the one spotted in the Boro.

Eagle Owl - Usually only though to live in Scandinavia, but spotted in Boro and Maastricht

It is good to see these birds visit the 'town' but it does make you wonder what happened to the sparrow, the wren and the starling which I haven't seen for quite some time.

Bonsai is Buggered

Today I went to the 'Pasar Malam Asia' at the MECC which was very disappointing, but I did see one stand which caught my eye.

It was a 'bonsai tree' stand. I bought an impressive looking tree for 12.50Euros and went home looking forward to clipping it's wings. But a quick search on the BBC website sadly told me I may have been ripped off.

So my beautiful tree might die, but I am gonna help it as best I can.
Unfortunately it seems both my cats enjoy eating it's leaves. Basically it has no chance.

Postie

I recently started a post round which i have to say I am really enjoying so far. It is for a competitor of the usual post company and I only have to do it twice a week and the weather so far has been perfect. I am not so sure how much I will enjoy it when 'come rain or shine' happens. But so far it has been very enjoyable getting out on the bike, seeing the dutch way of life, and meeting the people of suburbia.

My round is a very affluent area of Maastricht. The 'Doorns'. Each street ends in 'Doorn'; so as 'Vuurdoorn, Gaspeldoorn, Duindoorn, Meidoorn, etc, etc.

Apart from the Doorns (in blue) there is the Vijverdal in 'yellow' which is the psychiatric hospital, which can be interesting as the inamtes scream at you as you deliver the post.

The 'orange' part I take next which is a series of schools where you get through various security to make sure you are nor a 'pedo'. And also here many teachers telling the pupils, "Oh there is the postman, watch he has to put the post in the post box". Very educational.

The bit which I choose to do last is the 'Bemelerweg' (green) which is a bit a of trip into the countryside and uphill so best to do with an empty bag. This ends at a farm where there is two very aggressive Dalmation cross-breads waiting on chains to attack you as you deliver their post. Fortunately they are both tied in such a way that neither one can reach you if you zig-zag through to the postbox. Always an exciting way to finish the round.

Little Gem

Little bundle of fur 'Gem' - name after the diamond shape on her back

Today I went for a walk in the 'Eijsderbeemden' to enjoy the sunshine which we have unfortunatley not seen for almost two weeks now. I came back to the entrance of the nature reserve and saw a tiny little creature mucking about in the waste bin overflow licking beer cans.

It was the cutest little cat. Strangely enough I wandered past thinking someone else will sort it out but as I reached the car I thought to myself 'who will look after it'?. I looked around and the nearest house was 1 mile away. So I asked a local Dutchy who was on his' Jollies' who fortunately had enquired about the dierenambulance' (RSPCA) numbers and programmed them into his phone.

Both numbers didn't work so I decided to take the 'little one' into the car after some protest from my dutch friend. His son had already become fond of the cat. But I drove on to the nearest building to ask if it was maybe theirs.

As they replied 'no' and supplied me with a box, we and two oldish women walked to the car to pack our little one into the box to transport it home. It was going quite well (scruff of the neck technique) until the two 'mature ladies' decided they wanted to pet and 'ooh and argghh' at the kitten. At which point it freaked out and wanted to escape. Due to the fact we were on a pretty busy road I held on for my life to it's neck while it protested and fought for it's freedom.

One of the ladies asked me 'Did he get you?'. I replied "No". But she said ' I think he did". I looked to my arm to see 7 bleeding wounds.

Back home we introduced the kitten to Spike much to his disgust. And a hissing fit followed, growling etc. for the rest of the night. Spike is very displeased with his house guest. A 6 week old kitten. (The big brute). Probably more disgusted because this little frail kitten is getting all the milk and food it asks for and cuddles galore.

So my mission tomorrow is to hopefully find the owner of this bundle of fur. Otherwise it might have to be a decision for the 'cat home' or 'our home'.

Hoegy Drought

My drink of choice if I am going to a bar is usually Hoegaarden. Last night we went for a 'Ruby' and did a mini bar-crawl on the way back to our regular to finish the night of with a game of darts. I was very disappointed to find in all 3 bars no Hoegy was available on tap.

By the 3rd bar I had got so incensed that I asked the Landlord why? 'Dodgy beer' came the reply. Apparently Hoegaarden have closed their brewery in 'Hoegaarden', a small Belgian village inbetween Maastricht and Brussels. The new brewery is in Jupille, where Jupiler beer is made in South Belgium.

Problem is they are having teething troubles getting the first batches of Hoegy right at the new brewery and therefore due to the popularity of this beer it has quickly become a drought.

It is not only here in Holand and Belgium which was the original market for the beer but now it has been marketed so well the problem has extended to the UK where Hoegy lovers are wondering what the hell is going on.

Fortunately here in Maastricht we produce another fine 'white beer' which during the Hoegaarden explosion on to the world market has been incompetently slow at 'taking a piece of the pie'. So 'white beer' is still on the menu if you want a 'Wieckse Witte' formally brewed on the side of the Maas in Maastricht, but now by Heineken.

Pond Life

Kermit with red cheeks - "The tanning experience"

When we moved into our place I found a sand pit in the 'back gard' which I quickly decided to turn into a pond. It doesn't take long before such a creation becomes an attraction for all sorts of wildlife and it is now breaming with frog spawn in early spring-time. As the months get warmer we are spending the evenings in the garden and I decided to put the pond light into the pond yesterday to enhance the garden experience. Only to find a frog knicking the limelight and destroying our enjoyment. Obviously I set the cat upon it and it was quickly destroyed.

I forgot to recognise that the cat prefers to lick frogs then go into a strange cross-eyed stupour for the next two hours whilst the frog disappears into the depths.

The demise of a the Eyldergaard Tree

I posted a blog about a local tree a few months back which I was always impressed with. On my trip to the the supermarket on my bike today I was very shocked to see it had been butchered. The tree I estimate must have been over 200 years old, sitting in a suburb of Maastricht 'Eyldergaard' which is built up of houses from the 70's. What a sad loss that the only piece of history has vanished. I guess they did it on safety reasons as it would have fallen on to the surrounding houses but it will really miss my big tree. I might start hugging trees in future just incase I don't get to say goodbye.

O'Shea 9 darter IDL

It has never happened before in one tournament but tonight in Nijmegen the second 9-darter was thrown by Tony O'Shea from Stockport. A man I had a nice chat with outside the MECC last year. Good on ye Tony and Happy 46th Birthday. Shame that the car was already gone.

Wheres a coppa when you need one

Markt, Maastricht, Sunday 22 2007 Amstel Gold Race

BOOM!

Update:14th April: A little video of the event.



I've never see a live demolition by dynamite of a building before. But this Saturday I am going to watch the local psychiatric hospital take a big dose of TNT.


Bye Bye Maggie!

One of the reasons for the demolition is that at 8 stories high the patients were using the height to commit suicide.