Maastricht: Sphinxpark, a temporary urban park

Last weekend, we drove from Brussels to Maastricht, a Dutch city that is at the border between the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. This was the first time that either one of us had been to this part of the Netherlands; AB has been going to Delft and the Hague for work, and we have both been to Amsterdam and Rotterdam.Maastricht doesn’t have nearly quite as many canals as other more famous / touristic Dutch cities, and is instead positioned on both sides of the Meuse/Maas river; it was quite a sight when driving over one of the bridges over the water!

We didn’t have any planned activities in Maastricht and spent most of the time walking around the city centre and drinking/eating outdoors (one has got to make the most of the summer in norther Europe!) One of our favourite discoveries was the Sphinxpark, which is located next to the Sphinx car park where we had parked our rented little VW vehicle.Based on the surrounding buildings, it seems like the Sphinx car park stands over a former factory / production site. The parking lot is surrounded by abandoned buildings with smashed windows which I found rather striking in the bright afternoon sunlight.

We chanced upon the Sphinxpark when we returned in the evening – AB had suggested that we check out a gaping entrance between fences…And so we wandered into this temporary urban park that was created in March 2012 on the site of the former ceramic factories of the Royal Sphinx. We didn’t wander in Sphinxpark for too long as we wanted to be able to find our way back to the hotel in before it got dark. Would have loved to spend a little more time in the park, which was quite unusual and fascinating with its untamed flora, park ‘facilities’ made out of containers, and abandoned industrial surroundings.