It turns out I could have invited a friend and his boast of six inches into my room at Maastricht’s Kaboom Hotel. Given I was not travelling alone, I did not take up the invitation. Given that the six inches actually referred to a stick insect that I could pay to be my companion for the night, I just shook my head and thought “oh, those Dutchies!”
Hiring a stick insect for the night is one of the more unusual perks i have been offered in a hotel in, well, any country I have ever visited. But the Kaboom hotel in the southern Netherlands city of Maastricht does not set out to be “normal”.
We arrived in the Netherlands’ southernmost city after a trip around the continent. A snowstorm of epic proportions was settling in. We’d come in via Strasbourg and Luxembourg where the first flakes that would ultimately shut down most of northern Europe started falling.
The hotel is pretty much directly across the road from the Maastricht railway station, its lights a beacon of warmth after a long day’s travel. Kaboom is like a Tardis inside: a narrow street front opens to a warren of staircases and hallways within that seem to stretch several storefronts wide, not to mention deep. Kaboom has 79 rooms, offering 194 beds in a combination of configurations.
Kaboom advertises itself as comfort without unnecessary extras in true Dutch pragmatic fashion. And that is exactly what it is. Our room was compact, with a bed, space to unpack and a small bathroom with shower, vanity and toilet. And that is all we needed on our overnight stop to explore the historic city of Maastricht. We use them all before we head out into downtown Maastricht for a Thai dinner and again in the morning.
Kaboom has a breakfast area offering a small selection of rolls, fruit, eggs, coffee and tea. But we wanted to explore the historic centre and headed out on foot to visit the city’s 300-year-old pentagon-shaped Fort St Peter.
Like so many cities in Europe Maastricht is like a living museum of historic buildings and bridges, and it’s all in easy walking distance. We left our luggage in the care of the Kaboom staff before heading out to see the fort, on the highest point in Netherlands – an impressive 400m above sea level. We walked cobbled streets, through narrow lanes and crossed the 700-year-old St Servatius Bridge – the Netherlands’ oldest stone bridge – on the way.
It’s all within about half an hour’s walk of the hotel and there’s something pretty special about discovering a city’s ancient buildings while just wandering along. Maastricht’s university has buildings dating back to the 17th century and the city itself has been inhabited for about 2000 years.
Were we not booked on the next train out of town to Amsterdam we would have stayed longer in this ancient city. And we would have been quite comfortable extending out stay at the Kaboom. But without any stick insects in our room.
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