Kruisherenhotel

The first time I've been to Maastricht (Netherlands), we passed an old cloister with a very peculiar entrance. Curious, we went inside and it turned out to be a hotel. We were quite impressed by the contrast between the century-old building and the design interiors. And the holographic light bulbs in the toilets! I thought, one day I'll come back to stay there.

said peculiar entrance

2 years later I did come back, and there we were. See the pictures below. This must be one of the 3 most expansive places I've stay at, though.

the lobby

the courtyard

the wine bar

the breakfast room

...the breakfast buffet was a 10m-long table with food so diverse, there's no way you could have tried half of it!

Maastricht is home to the Caves of St. Pieter, an underground labyrinth with over 20,000 (unlit) passageways, started by the Romans. Visits are made with torches. You get lost, you never come out...

Kaamos

I've just seen an impressive video on the Dot Earth Blog that shows northern lights filmed from the ISS. After that I really want to see northern lights again :-) Remember my post about Kakslauttanen? In the FAQ section on their website they have an entry "What is Kaamos?". They state "Kaamos is a time of phenomenal Arctic light performance, during which sky is blue when look North and red in the south." Somehow hard to imagine, until I ran into this picture...