"Is there a way the Dutch prefer to take their coffee? I was just going to get a cappuccino but..."
"They love hot chocolate here," Kendon says.
I glare.
There was a series of winters almost a decade ago when I would be very excited to drink hot chocolate but only get as far as acquiring hot chocolate mix, and subsequently giving it to Kendon because food I couldn't finish usually went to him. He is lactose intolerant and was doing me a huge favor. Ten boxes worth of favors. Now I don't hear the end of it.
(Understandable.)
"What's this? Koffie Verkeerd?" I look to him for translation. He shrugs.
I point my phone's camera at the menu to translate.
"No... this can't be right."
"What does it say?" Kendon asks.
"Wrong coffee?"
"Try zooming out, sometimes it needs the whole phrase..."
"Um... it says... wrong coffee."
We laugh. Our best guess is that it's a play on words about the process of making the drink itself (a macchiato). Maybe adding espresso last is incorrect.
A few hours later, we are winding through the city of Maastricht, Netherlands. We briefly explore their Christmas market, but decide to walk around the city center instead because we can't hear each other.
We talk about life and research projects and the buildings around us and our shifting styles and how I'm holding up after my dad's death. I tell him about how all my energy is going into holding myself together, how much I miss my dad, and how grateful I feel to love and be loved by my friends.
Eventually we end up in a place I have a homing beacon for--a pile of old rocks. This one was arranged in the shape of a cathedral.
The Basilica of St. Servatius is a major pilgrimage site for Catholic people, and has a collection of holy relics. It also has two Michelin stars, but not for their basement cafe (which I was happy to see is wheelchair accessible). I learned that heritage sites can also get Michelin stars, though I couldn't in good conscience rank world heritage sites.
We wandered again and found another one. The Basilica of Our Lady was built in the 11th century and was possibly a Roman temple to Jupiter before a church was built here. It seems to have been a "rival" of the Basilica of St. Servatius, and because the latter seems to have been favored by the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, there haven't been as many resources dedicated to researching and recording its history. It was overtaken by the French army in 1794, and restored in 1917 by Dutch architect Pierre Cuypers. I wonder if he had access to any paintings or texts about what this cathedral looked like when it was built to guide the restoration.
