"Let me in this cave to die!"

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Today, I woke up & felt like death. I literally didn’t sleep last night due to fever/chills/headache/throat ache, the whole 9 yards. Truly awful. I was supposed to meet Adnan & Carolina for lunch at 11:30 because it’s Carolina’s last day in Maastricht; however, I had to cancel. It’s really awful. I laid around for a while, & Dad came over & we packed up most of my stuff & cleaned my room a little bit. By about 1:30 I started feeling a little better, so hoping to salvage what remained of the day, Dad & I decided to take the boat down to the St. Pietersburg caves.

The St. Pietersburg caves are located on the highest point in Maastricht close to the Belgian border. The caves were initially used by the Romans to mine limestone. Throughout the years, the caves served many different purposes, including a refuge from sieges of the city & a shelter for the citizens of Maastricht during World War II to hide out while the front lines were in Maastricht in September 1944. Today, you can take guided tours through the caves, but you’re not allowed to go in by yourself. After being in there, I now see why. It’s truly a labyrinth of tunnels with a total length of 200 kilometers (about 124 miles). Also, it’s pitch black. Our tour guide had a flashlight, & we had 3 lanterns for light. Even still, outside the reach of that light, you couldn’t see a thing. At one point, the guide had us put down the lights, run our hand along the wall, & see where it took us. Luckily, it just made a big circle back to where the lights were. Dad was right behind me & literally couldn’t see me even though I was an arm’s length away. However, he & another man cheated because they pulled out their cell phones to get their bearings. Cheaters. It was pretty spooky, though. Especially because you had no idea where you were going to end up. Like I said, I have no clue how that guide knew his way around that place. If you got separated from the group, you’d definitely be screwed. I have a pretty good sense of direction & even I lost track of where we turned & how to get back to where we started. Yikes.

The tour itself was in Dutch, so unfortunately, many things were lost on us. Regardless, the sites were enough to keep us entertained. Throughout the years, graffiti on the walls have been common. I mean, there was graffiti from the 1500s! That’s just crazy! Also, there are wall murals of various subjects throughout the caves. It’s truly fantastic. For one, it’s so hard to see in there just walking, so it’s truly impressive that any could create works of art in that atmosphere. The pictures don’t even do them justice, but at least you can get the picture of how awesome they are.

The caves stay about 12-13 degrees Celsius (53-55 degrees Fahrenheit) year round. However, since I was still a little feverish, I was freezing even with a sweater on. I was so exhausted from the amount of walking we did, that at one point I told Dad just to leave me in the cave to die… Good thing he didn’t take me seriously. Haha.

In any case, the caves are a really great underground treasure of Maastricht. I would really recommend them to anyone visiting the city. The boat tour down to the caves is really nice, & it only costs about 12 Euros per person (which includes the boat tour & the tour of the caves). There’s also a very nice restaurant at the entrance to the caves, which attracted a lot of people so it must be good. St. Pietersburg itself has a lot more to offer than just the caves. There are several walking paths that can be taken & various things to see. A ton of people had their dogs out so I can imagine it would be a great place to walk a pet.

Despite the illness, the day wasn’t totally a waste! ☺

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Photos

Pitch black
Without the light cast from the flashlight & lanterns, the caves were so pitch black, you couldn't see even an arm's length in front of you.

Wall mural
This wall mural has the word "welcome" written in French, Dutch, & at one time, in German. During World War II, the German "willkommen" was changed to just "welcome."

Wall mural
Dragon, & apparently someone placed a Mario doll in there, as well. haha.

Wall mural
The intricacy of these murals is astounding considering the darkness of the caves.

Wall mural
While quarrying the limestone from the caves, many exoskeletons of dinosaurs & prehistoric water animals were found. This wall mural apparently depicts that.

Statute
Many of the wall murals & statues in the caves were religiously inspired.