A couple of weeks ago we've spend the holidays in the southern part of The Netherlands in the province Limburg.
Limburg is known for its hilly landscape, historic cities, and Burgundian lifestyle. When we were there we've visited a couple of places in the area from which Valkenburg is one of them.

Valkenburg

Fun fact: there are actually two towns called Valkenburg in The Netherlands. One is close to where we live and one is in the south of the country. The latter Valkenburg is a charming historic town known for its medieval ruins and picturesque streets. Valkenburg is famous for its underground caves which you can visit. It has a lively atmosphere with cozy cafes, both in summer and winter, Its rich heritage make it a popular destination for tourists... like us.

Winterwonderland

When we visited Valkenburg it was an overcast day with a bit of drizzle every now and then. We didn't immediately get the feeling of the winter wonderland that was advertised around the town.
Valkenburg is known for its hilly area and they even have chairlift to get on top of the 'mountain'. I normally like to walk, but the rest of the family disagreed on that 😂

The chair lift

So we went up with the chair lift. It was just a 5 minute trip to the top. On the top there was a restaurant in the Wilhelminatower, a tower that was built in 1915 to commemorate the visit of queen Wilhelmina to the region. There were also two 'rodelbaan' tracks. They translate to toboggan run or a luge track, buy when I google on that I see a slide or an ice track 😂
The track is a metal-type slide that you ride in with a sort of cart. The kids really liked to go do this, so we did. Although it didn't seem to steep, it was going really fast. On some points you really needed to pull the brake 😃

The cave

When we came back down we entered the cave that is inside the mountain. Because it was just after Christmas there was a presentation of the birth of Jesus Christ inside the cave. The location was more interesting than the presentation itself.
A big contrast with the calmness of the tour was the climbing frame in the back of the cave. A huge frame of tens of meters in height was placed in the aback of the cave. There were nets, ropes and ladders and kids were playing in them. There was quite a bit of noise both from the kids as the music they played. The acoustics in the cave made us leave this place immediately.

Medieval walls

After that we went for a walk into the city center. As I already mentioned, there is a lot of history in Valkenburg. We entered the 'old town' via the Grendelpoort, a medieval city gate, dating back to the 14th century. It is one of the few remaining structures of the old city walls Valkenburg used to be surrounded with. The port served as a protection against enemies in foreign times. You can still see the gate that could be lowered when enemies would arrive.

After entering the city we arrived in the shopping street. Valkenburg is known for the many terraces that are quite busy in summer. We visited Valkenburg in winter, so there were less people outside. But they did decorate the streets and terraces making it look very festive.

There als was a Christmas market called 'Santa's village', but we arrived a few days after Christmas, so this was already gone. The market did have a very cool entrance with a decorated bridge and again a nice defense wall building.

There is a small river that flows through Valkenburg, called the Geul. It's actually split up in two. It originates in Belgium and meanders through Limburg. I remember that a few years ago Valkenburg was hit by a severe flooding of this seemingly small and calm river. Due to heavy rainfall in the area and further upstream in Belgium the Geul overflowed and caused a lot of damage in Valkenburg.

When you're walking through Valkenburg you sometimes feel you are back in medieval times.
This French Mill for instance is a monumental building in the center. It's a historic watermill located along the river de Geul I meantioned earlier. The mill dates back to the 17th century and was used for grinding grain.

On the following image you can see the large water wheel which is set in motion by the water. This then turns the millstones inside the building which were used to grind the grain into flower.

Another remarkable bulding is this Casino Hotel. I find the facade itself very beautiful. The building is not from the middle ages, but dates from 1902 according to the text on the right side.
During this period Valkenburg began to attract a lot of tourist because of its beauty and spa facilities. The Casino Hotel offered accommodations and entertainment for their guests.

When we headed back to the car we crossed a broader part of the river. You can see that is must have been quite difficult to enter the city from this side in the middle ages.
We had a really a good time in Valkenburg. Despite the cold weather we had a nice impression of the town. The atmosphere is really nice. We really should visit this town in summer sometime. The terraces near the water must be perfect in the sun.
We'll just have to come back another time 😊

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