Day 47_Maastricht

The Netherlands, Holland, Dutch...why does the country have so many different names?  Apparently, I stand corrected that the Netherlands is not The Netherlands in the same way that the United States is not The United States.  The names historically are derived from politics, linguistics and geography.  all are correct.  Anyway, that's where I am these days.

Conference went well on Wednesday followed by a lovely dinner with 15 various faculty from University of Washington, North Carolina, Penn State and Cal Poly.  Fun to compare how low their course loads are compared to ours--yet we have the same publication requirements.  Thursday we took a walking tour of Maastricht.  What is interesting is that we took almost the exact same route I took myself on Tuesday, knowing nothing about the city, its history or important buildings and neighborhoods.  I guess I am getting good at being a "local."  (I do have to say, however, that I usually had more historical and trivial information for my students when I took them on walking tours than the local landscape architect for our journey...).   On my first individual venture I came across a church which was colored deeply red on top.  On my guided tour I found out it was originally painted in ox blood, left uncolored on the bottom because "they liked it that way."  (Hmm...I usually do not allow my students to offer that sort of design justification.)  According to the story, this Protestant church would ring its bells when the Catholic church next door held its services and vice-versa.  Good Christian ethics at work in the 17th century.  Another unused church has become the city's most expensive hotel, like the bookstore in layout with freestanding stairs and rooms which do not effect the architecture.  Europeans are good at realizing these places have value, regardless of use change and should be preserved.

We took a bus out to the countryside to see an 18th century estate, which has the oldest Baroque garden in the Netherlands.  In the process of on-going restoration, it is a formal, clipped evergreen garden with modern overtones.  Apparently the last time Belgium and the Netherlands were at war, the nobleman who lived at the estate requested to be a part of the Netherlands rather than Belgium.  Consequently, his stone wall is the Belgium border.  I touched the wall so I could say I'd been to Belgium that day.