The Art of Progress

America is a really young country. I have a tendency to forget this. In all honesty, I think of the progress we've made over the years and sometimes it makes me a little sad. About 150 years ago America was only have settled, there were miles and miles of undiscovered land lying perfect and untouched.There were hundreds of buffalo that grazed through the fields and birds flew high in they sky. In my opinion, American progression into a modern society is bittersweet. Yes, we are the technological masters of the world, we live in what is perhaps the safest country with books and paintings and many, many other beautiful things. But in order to have these things we have crisscrossing asphalt through what used to be beautiful landscapes and massive hordes of people trampling up and down paved sidewalks.

This feeling of loss isn't here in Europe, because there was never a moment before people.In fact, progress here stands as a beacon to human ingenuity and is incorporated into everyday life effortlessly. The past isn't sacrificed for the future.


This is the St. Servaas bridge. It stretched across the Maas river and connects the two sides. If your interested in getting to the train station or the movie theater you're going to have to cross this bridge (or another just like it). The original bridge that sat in this location was built by the Romans who originally settled the city, but after that bridge fell into disuse, this one was built in the 1200s. Today it's still used, though only as a pedestrian bridge. Regardless of cars or not, it sits at the heart of the city. After eating at one of the outdoor cafes you can take a stroll across this bridge and watch the sun set.

Here's a little local favorite among all the Baylor kids. It's the Selexyz bookstore.

Talk about Heaven on Earth! (Pun is absolutely intended here). Not only is this the biggest bookstore I've ever seen, it's the most creative use of ancient architecture that I've seen as well! This bookstore is complete with coffee shop (at the altar!) and carries books in Dutch, French, Spanish, German, and English (the English section is really big, and I've successfully refrained from buying anything! Go me!) It's interesting to go in here and just study for a little while, the frescoes still glow against the ceiling and all the tomb sites are still marked (I assumed the graves are still there, but I don't know that to be fact.)


When I was taking a walk around the old city center ( ok, so perhaps I was a little lost...) this past weekend I found this.

This is the original city wall that circled around Maastricht when she first was nothing more than a fortress city on a river. It was built in 1229. Look at the coolest part, though. In the foreground is a door. That is somebody's house. You can't see it but there are other doors that line directly across from the wall down the alley way. This part of town belonged to all the tanneries, so houses here are situated between the first city wall and a small river! It's actually quite a beautiful part of town.


Combining the past and present is not something unique to Maastricht. It's present in most European cities, Paris, Munich, Rome. I find this aspect interesting. It is as if to say, "we've progressed! No regrets!" Perhaps one day I'll be able to say thing about America. One day I won't be quite so bitter sweet about the industrialization of our country. I wonder what of our buildings will be incorporated into everyday life in 400 years!

¿Habla inglés?

This weekend was summed up rather nicely by Christin on Friday when she mumbled, giggling to herself, "It's fun listening to Lindsay try and pronounce the street names." How is this possible? We were are 5 college students from Texas and non of us speak Spanish! Ah, the fail of the education system... However, while it made communicating things like "hi, I think I lost my checked luggage somewhere in the airport" difficult, I have to admit that it is good to know that there is at least one other country out there that doesn't encourage their citizens to learn a language other than their primary tongue. Everyone should experience trying to explain where your going to a non English speaking cabby in a strange country at 5 o'clock in the morning.

Language barrier aside, however, Spain is a fascinating place. Before leaving Maastricht I was beginning to get excited about this new country. All of the place places I'd been to so far, Germany, Austria, England, seem normal in my mind, but Spain, Spain was exotic. Why this is I do not know. I do know, however, that if your going for exotic, Madrid is not the place to be because it looks like any other capital city: big streets, metro, tall buildings,botanical gardens, and of course, trash, graffiti (only this time you can't read it), and little run down stores.

We actually arrived in Madrid a little too late to see anything. By the time we got the keys to our apartment It was 4:30 and most of the museum's closed at 6:00 or so we thought. When we arrived at one of the Museum's however, we realized that it actually shut down at 2:00. So we strolled along Calle de Prado, taking pictures of the fountains and trees and looking at what the artisans had to sell. We found this one man sitting on the edge of a fountain painting the most beautiful fans! What says Spain more than that? We ultimately ended up wandering through a botanical garden and looking at all the bizarre plants and their names.


Now, I must tell you, if you wish to see that other Spain that I was referring to, the exotic Spain with the clay houses and terracotta roofs you need to go to a place like Segovia.
We were fortunate to happen to fall into knowing about Segovia. On Thursday morning we were discussing out trip over breakfast and telling Dr. Rust about how we weren't super excited to go to Madrid because we didn't know what was there. His suggestion was to use Madrid as a launching pad to take day trips into smaller Spanish towns, and he suggested Segovia. What? You say you've never heard of it? I'm not sure how many people do know about this little gem (except for my dad because he knows most places). It's about a two hour train ride from Madrid, and it is simply beautiful. It has the Spanish architecture, the alleys, cobblestone streets, landscape, and best of all, history.

The first thing that greeted us was the Roman Aquaduct that splits the city in half. It was absolutely breath taking to drive up on the bus and suddenly see it looming ahead of you nestled among all the Spanish style houses!

Then, there is the Cathedral, a church that I think puts even Notre-Dame to shame. A simple photograph cannot even begin to translate how massive and gorgeous this thing was. It was started in 1528 and not finished until 1768, almost two hundred years later. Inside there are beautiful paintings and beautiful tall, arched ceilings.

May favorite however, was the castle Alcazar. It was built by Alfonzo III and had a rather extensive history in the early years of its life, but I was most interested by the monarchs that ruled here in the later 1400s. This was the castle where Isabella was crowned Queen in 1474. She along with her husband Ferdinand happened to fund a little expedition with an Italian explorer named Christopher Columbus in 1492 (!). If I'm not mistaken, she is also the mother of Catherine of Argon, Henry VIII's first wife and mother of "Bloody" Mary, Elizabeth I's older sister. (Yes, they were all inbred into a tangled web of marriage and children!) I'm afraid to admit however, that this is nearly all I know of Isabella.

I very much enjoyed my stay Spain this weekend and would loved to have looked around a little longer. I've never really had a fascination with the Spanish culture the way I have others (namely French and English) and I'm not sure that that has changed any, but I think that I have a bit more of an appreciation for it, and I'm happy to know that the exotic Spain of my imagination does exist, somewhere.

As always, pictures.