Culture, Leisure, Travel, posted April 16th, 2007

579 Views

It’s spring time again – so what better way to spend our Sunday than on an excursion? That’s why my charming flatmate Joanna and I allow ourselves the pleasure - or set ourselves the task, as you like it – of dedicating our Sunday afternoon energy to such trips.

Notwithstanding the fact that we’re making the most out of the sunny weather, it’s also great to get out after seeing nothing but Maastricht proper all week long. Now that we’re into this project, we are discovering all kinds of interesting places in the nearby surroundings that are in urgent need of investigation. Let’s hope for a dry spring then!

For our first bike and hike trip we joined forces with two other friends of ours, one of them an expert on Maastricht’s environs. Nothing much could go wrong then.

We started off at the Torenmolen just before Gronsveld, a windmill located on the main road (Rijksweg) outside of De Heer neighbourhood, about six kilometres to the south of Maastricht. If you are a little bit familiar with the Dutch windmill scene, you will realize that architecturally, it quite differs from the common types of windmill to be found all over the country. The name says it all; it’s a tower windmill, the building is made up of a stone tower and used to grind grain.

There are only four windmills of this type in the whole Netherlands (the three other ones are in Lienden, Zeddam and Zevenaar). Usually, the cap of this type of windmill is moved by a mechanism located within the cap itself. The Gronsveld mill however is an exception to the rule. Its cap is turned towards the wind by an outside mechanism.

The windmill can be observed in full activity every second Saturday of the month between 11 am and 4 pm (but only for a substantial 10 € per adult).

Directly behind the windmill a small path branches off from the Rijksweg. We followed it (downhill, luckily) until we almost reached Gronsveld. On the left hand side, another small path branches off, and because it’s really narrow, we decided to leave our bike somewhere close by. Nobody steals them outside of Maastricht… and we agreed that a little spring walk was among the greatest things the season has on offer!

The path took us for a while along the foot of a very steep hill (for eyes used to real hills) or a small mountain (for eyes accustomed to Dutch circumstances). Eventually the track decided to lead up this very hill/ mountain, so we had a good look at what we were facing.

It did appear scary at first to be sure, but it turned out to be a pleasant walk really.

We came past some huge beech trees and small caves in the rock face. The hill did look somewhat steep from the bottom, but it fact it wasn’t half as bad as it seemed. I’m officially recognised as one of the most easily exhausted persons worldwide when walking uphill, so you can take my word for it. There was no need for us to despair. What’s more, we were welcomed by a bench and a table at the top of the hill, a nice view and a little white house that was already visible from the bottom.

According to our tour guide Dick, it was the dwelling of the former forest wardens who used to look after the forest stretching around us. A nice place to live, though a little lonely perhaps, we thought. We didn’t find out why there is no forest warden living there any more. Maybe it’s because it’s impossible to find anybody who wants to live that way – in a quiet but a bit remote place. Either way, the view was pretty, and after the climb we all deserved a little rest.

The path led on a little while through the forest, and then we were faced with a choice – we could either climb further up and take a grand tour, or choose the shorter way on a another path downhill. We opted for the second option, which we should however have considered somewhat more carefully. The one thing that needs to be said is that you should absolutely refrain from it if the weather for the previous couple of days has been prone to generate muddy ways. Because this particular path will be the muddiest of all. (Okay, you could of course prepare yourself and wear walking boots that won’t be irreparably damaged when exposed to dirt.) Within about a quarter of an hour we reached our bikes again and were able to confirm that indeed nobody steals bikes outside of Maastricht.

As it happened, we had some time left on our hands, and so we decided to make the nice little detour via Rijckholt and Gronsveld before returning to Maastricht. We rode the pretty big Kampweg, which we hit soon after entering the village of Gronsveld.

Turning left, we came across the Voerenweg, which is a nice little road leading past Gronsveld and into Rijckholt. The prettiest part of Rijckholt is its castle, which is now used as a party and congress centre. Its outsides can be visited, and moreover there’s a fabulous driver’s cottage. Tragically enough, it can only be admired from the outside too, because there are people lucky enough to live in there.

From Rijckholt the main road via Gronsveld led us back to the windmill. And trust me, we were exhausted enough after all that!

By Francesca Schmidt

Francesca Schmidt, 20, is a German student specialising in Arts and Culture at the University of Maastricht.

Map 1: General outline of the trip

Map 2: Detailed outline of the hiking part

 

This entry was posted on Monday, April 16th, 2007 at 2:10 pm and is filed under Culture, Leisure, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.