Valkenburg April 07

The village from the castle hill


The cave entrance


Great artwork


From the Dutch Resistance


Kilroy was there!


The alter


Tammy


Cris


The castle ruins


The finish line

In late April my friend Tammy, who lives in Brussels, came for a weekend visit. We took her to Valkenburg which is a small Dutch “city” of around 18,000 and is about 40 minutes south of where we live. When we fist drove into town we were a little concerned about parking as the Amstel Light Bike Race was going one. Cycling is HUGE in the Netherlands. I think that every Dutchman owns three bikes and manages to ride them all at once. Many big races are held in and around Valkenburg. In fact the Tour de France has even had a stage that finished in the town in 2006. We did have some good luck and once we passed some race traffic we found a great parking spot.

There is a small castle on top of the hill right near the city center. The castle was destroyed in 1672 and now it’s in total ruins. More exciting is the cave that is beneath the castle itself. The cave was created due to granite quarrying and its history goes back to Roman times. Throughout the history of the town, people used the cave to store dry goods, food and to even to live in. Of course due to the quarrying the cave grew bigger with each generation. Even more exciting is the modern use of the cave during World War II by the Dutch resistance and American soldiers.

The walls are covered with amazing charcoal drawings and carvings from its early history to a proclamation by the Dutch resistance in 40’s. There is American GI graffiti and the tracing of soldiers profiles on one wall. Most impressive is the church alter that was carved into the stone.

After our visit to the cave under the castle we were ready for lunch. As we walked down the main road dozens of cyclist of all ages whizzed past us and around the corner. It was crazy and all of the cafés were packed with people watching the race. We headed back toward the less crowded pedestrian area and had a great lunch is a less crowded area. We then went back to the car with the intention of finding the municipal cave that ware so massive that there is a tram ride through it.

So off in the car we drove, right through the center of the picturesque town…right up to the corner to join the racing cyclist….and right up the upward sloping narrow road that they were racing on….YIKES. We had no choice. There was no where to turn around and the sidewalks were lined with spectators. We got a little nervous as we were in the right lane and the cyclist crowded in the left as we drove up hill. Then another car joined in behind us, so we were a bit more relived that we were driving legally. The hill kept going up and up while we crept along at a snails pace. When we reached the near summit there were some motorcycle cops who just waved the cars on. Finally, at the top we could see the huge banner that went over the finish line. (Personally, I think making the race finish with a hill is just plain cruel.) So we ended up driving under the banner with the racers on the left and the grandstands on the right. Because we wouldn’t be able to double back using that road we decided that it would be better to check out the other cave at a later date and we went home.