House of Houben

We had another marvelous day here in Holland! My kind host has allowed me to use his laptop computer again. Robert & I just returned from a walk to the local cemetery which alas was closed. It's the place where his grandparents, Hub and Theodora (I think that's their names) are buried. Yes, Dad Houben, they are still there. Tante Jo goes regularly to clean their graves. She said they lie under a tree and it gets very dirty. Today we met Tante Jo at 10:30 and went to the train station where we caught the train to Maastricht. Wow. We absolutley LOVE that town! The station is so clean. We spent about 1/2 hour browsing the outdoor market place which was full of antiques. They are really into markets here. They set up veggie and fruit markets on certain days of the week, and that's where T. Jo buys her fresh things. Of course she doesn't have a bike but she lives close to the market square in Heerlen. I bought 2 tiny things for 1 euro each, made in Holland. One is for you Mom so I won't say what they are. I also bought old postcards of Heerlen! They are the first things I've found that have the name on it! I can't find any souvenirs here! The problem being that things open at 9 am and close at 5 pm!!! Isn't that archaic? Anyhow back to Maastricht...we crossed a bridge into the old part of town. We do this all on foot so let me tell you that we are exhausted at the end of each day and have no trouble sleeping! We were enchanted with the town. We stopped for refreshment at a sidewalk cafe. It's fun to watch the hundreds of people walking past. Mom, Vancouver is a small village! After lunch we visited the old cathedral. Now that is a place worth seeing. It beats St. Bavo's church in Haarlem. Leona, it has relics on 2 floors, on with an arm bone of a saint. I especially loved a box made out of ivory. Matthew went into the basement so we followed. You wouldn't believe the musty odour down there! Behind glass walls we could view and ancient graveyard that they had found when digging in the 1980's to replace pipes. The bones they discovered dated way back to the early 800's I think it was. I got out of their quickly! I'll continue in thte next post.