Day10 - Valkenburg an de Geul (21 Des 2022)

 After a night of negotiating the tower-of-Piza-pillows… we were up at the first light (but is totally not so early in the northern winter!!). Running shoes, slipped onto our feet, Arno and I grabbed a little map of Valkenburg and surroundings from the well stocked information rack at the front door of our hotel. We walked up the mi-zillion steps to the 11th century Valkenburg Castle, overlooking the village, then commenced with jogging up the hill pass all the entrances to the caves. 

The name of Valkenburg aan de Geul explains everything: Valkenburg is located by the Geul, a small river in the province of Limburg, down in the south of the Netherlands and not far from Maastricht. Every year the whole town turns into a Christmas Town or 'Kersstadt'. Markets inside this network of caves, draw tourist from across the world. This very unusual place for a christmas market intrigued me enough to include Valkenburg as one of the stops on our European adventure. 

Valkenburg itself is mainly known for its marl caves. In Valkenburg - or rather, below Valkenburg - the 'municipal cave' lets you into a fascinating world. Marl was once mined here, and today, visitors can explore the caves - on foot or by slow train - where the Romans already mined marl 2,000 years ago. Another cave in Valkenburg is the Fluweelengrot which lies below the castle ruins. This corridor labyrinth was first discovered in 1937. In the past, it acted as an escape opportunity for riders and castle residents, in case the castle was invaded by enemies.

We found our way back through a little forest, passed some more Roman ruines and a training centre for the Wim Hoff

enthusiasts.

On our return we joined the kids in their rather spacious room -  the crew room. By now they were dressed in some fashionable outfitts…ready for their soiree through the streets of our Christmas village. Not too impressed with us, when we informed them gently, of our intentions to depart on a 'caving' adventure. The steep entrance fee for the Mahler Cave was putting Arno off, but I insisted that we do something different, than spending money on entrance to the Christmas market cave (Geementschap Grotto). 

 What a great two hours we had. Beside the whole history of mining the precious mahl stone (source of most of the building blocks of the early centuries), we leaned about the different purposes of the caves over the years…bomb shelter, hospital, mushroom factory,.. We loved the 3D wall paintings, where we could take the funniest photo's. 

The beautiful miniature display of the few months leading up to the birth of Jesus, with the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem and beyond, was really very special. 

The ultimate surprise we found at the very back of one of the tunnels. They have set up a stone masonary where we could create our own mahler stone creations to take home with us. This was  a great experience to get creative together. 

After a little lunch in the 'crew room', we ventured out again to catch the last of the afternoon light. This time we walked up the hill to the Christmas village themed park. We gave this attraction a skip and walked around it instead, through the most spectacular fallen leaf forest.

 We stumbled across a 'summer' bob-sledge track. After a bit of uhm'ing and aa'hing I got all the kids to give it a go. Arno and I once tried something similar in Rotorua, New Zealand. They had equal fun!! 

 

We heared a rumour that on Wednesday eve's during December, a Christmas parade with floats and dancers will prance through he village. When in Rome…. So we just behave like proper tourists from South Africa!!!  

Our plan was to go for a nice restaurant meal after the parade, treating ourselves with something different than the Christmas market food we'd consumed over the previous days. So for a little snack before the start of the street-show, we decided to indulge in a very cool local snack - we ordered 3 different types of 'vlaai's!! To explain - it's am apple, cherry, custard, fruit or anything you can lay your hands on in a pie form - sugar pastry bottom AND top. The sweet/sour cherry syrup'y filling was our  unanamous favourite.

 

 

In a gentle drizzle, we made our way over to the street corner, where we were told to position ourselves. The anticipation was building up... at 7pm groups of local villiagers children, adults started to line up behind decorated vehicles...of all sorts. Music started playing and the christmas parade was on it's way.

The crazy dancing of Alana and Nina, and Philippa's occasional jerks, entertained the other onlookers and the praticipants of the parade as much as they were entertaining us!!! We were not only watching the parade, but totally taking part in it!!!

 A lovely meal followed and a magical day was drawing to a close.  

 

I caught myself a few times during the day, dreaming about actually maybe someday living in Valkenburg - going for runs in the forests and exploring more of the cute craft shops, getting to know a few people….who knows..???