We initially visited Maastricht last year in November but didn’t do a post which got us into a lot of trouble! Back then, we had a lovely time getting to know Kate’s boyfriend,Ali, a little better and enjoying the sites on bikes visiting a quarry that serves as place for a lovely coffee and beautiful place to walk. Now , we were back for her graduation after she has spent a year working on beaches, in cafes and learning a lot about global cultural differences in both health and approaches to work!

Maastricht is a beautiful city, especially in the autumn, with its tree lined streets and hundreds of people on bikes. The cafe culture is very strong here and they’re so many pretty squares with people enjoying the local beers. We were staying near a lovely market square selling all sorts of unusual finds and antiques, local food and lovely clock tower. Unfortunately, Britain isn’t the only place with strikes so we were glad to have left lots of time to get to the graduation ceremony as there were rail strikes (also a worry for our 6am train to Amsterdam the next day). The graduation itself was very small and quite personal. The university put on a reception straight afterwards and it was interesting that towards the end it was mainly the Thailand contingent that were left with the free wine and beer- to be fair they had practised for 4 months! We went out after the ceremony and had a celebratory meal which included the traditional bitterballen (a deep fried breadcrumbed ball with a stew-like filling) which were delicious. All in all, it was a great celebration in lovely place.