Maastricht
vvvmaastricht.nl
Transport
Maastricht
Airport
Places to Stay
Van der Valk
hotel - http://www.vandervalk.com/
It's a
Dutch hotel chain rather like Ramada Inns in the US, so they're all quite
generic and lacking in local flavor, but on the other hand they have full
bathrooms in the rooms, are quite comfortable and affordable, and you can find
them everywhere. There's one in Schiphol with double room rates starting at EUR
75: http://www.bookings.nl/valkschiphol.nl.en.html
Things to Do
Maastricht is a lovely town in the South
of the Netherlands in the nook of a few countries, and Arnehem which is supposed
to be the gateway to the largest national park in the Netherlands is two hours
from Amsterdam
Spouse and I got a personal tour of the cathedral
there once - we stopped by to see it at 4PM and it had just closed for tours,
but one of the priest stopped us while we were walking away, and took us on a
fabulous tour. We even got to check out the saints' tombs in the basement,
wandered around in some of the towers, and got an impromptu organ recital when
the organist came in to practice unexpectedly. Then we all (me, Spouse and the
priest) went off to a pub and argued about evolution for a few hours
The countryside is very pretty around there as well, a bit more
hilly than the rest of the Netherlands.
I love all the Christmas
markets in Germany and the Netherlands, all that gluwein and street carts and
whatever.
Two of the best Carnival sites for Fasnacht are Maastricht
and Basel
Day Trips
Amsterdam is about two
hours away
If you're in the market for a camera it's just a
half-hour drive or so to Aachen. It also only takes a couple of hours to get
down into the Ardennes from there. 
