For a number of years, Jamie and I went to the cinema in July to watch the homecoming concert of Andre Rieu on the Vrijthof in Maastricht. Since I started watching at the cinema, I have always wanted to go to a homecoming concert and put it on my bucket list.

One December, Jamie and I went on the continent to some Christmas markets and one of the places we went to was Maastricht and to a Christmas market on the Vrijthof. You can read about that here.

I finally got my chance to be able to have enough money to go and I decided that I wanted to cross this off my bucket list.

I did it a bit of a different way this time and I flew into Eindhoven and then flew out of Cologne. Once I had bought my plane tickets, the wait began in earnest before I could book my train tickets to Maastricht from Eindhoven. Maastricht to Cologne was bookable right away.

I got to Maastricht and decided I would walk from the station to the hostel instead of a cab or a bus. What I didn’t realise was that the streets this side of Maastricht were full of cobbles. It wasn’t good for my feet or suitcase. I ended up dragging my four-wheeled case on 2 wheels (I know I generally judge people who do this but I make an exception for the cobbles).

I ended up taking a wrong turn and had to double back on myself (after checking the map) and found the bridge I needed to cross the river. Note to self: just follow the route it shows on the map.

Once I had crossed it, I decided that I would take the lift down instead of the stairs as I was way too hot, tired and sweaty to walk down the stairs – that and they took me to the other side of the road.

The map showed that the hostel seemed quite a distance from the bridge but once I was on the bridge it looked a lot closer (or I was hoping it was – turns out it was). I checked in and then headed straight out to the Vrijthof so I could get there in time for the concert (I know, I didn’t leave myself a great deal of time between check in and when I had to leave) and get my seat.

It was so strange to be there and also to see the entire square cordened off and ticketed. It was so surreal to be there since I had only seen it on the screen at the cinema. On the seat there was a poncho, a keyring and a bottle of water with Andre Rieu on it.

At one point before the concert started, there was a marching band that was around for about 30 minutes (see the video below). It was really good to be amongst that atmosphere.

I really enjoyed the concert and loved that I was able to cross it off my bucket list. I left around 23:15 as I was tired and needed to be up early the next morning for my train to Cologne.

I managed to get a half-decent sleep despite the heat and then headed out to get the train.

Sunday Tip
Don’t expect food places to be open before 10:00 and the rest of the stores to be open before 12:00

Below are some pictures from my time in Maastricht

You can view all of my Maastricht pics here