A Day in Limburg

On Monday we spent the day in Limburg, both in the Belgian and Dutch sides of this province. The main reason we were going was to see the exhibition of the Terracotta Army of Xi'an which is currently in Maaseik. They have 14 of the original life sized statues and over 200 smaller statues and burial objects. Of course the main attraction are the life sized warriors:

They are incredibly impressive, the detail in each face is amazing. I could not get over the fact that these terracotta figures survived over 2000 years.

I was most impressed by the life sized horse - the detail and precision was incredible:

The smaller statures were beautiful as well and gave more of an impression of the sheer quantity of what was discovered at the site in China.

When made for burial the statues were painted and adorned with leather and cloth - which all decayed over the past 2000 years. This reproduction was what they should have looked like when "new":

After our visit to Maaseik we headed to Thorn, just over the border in the Netherlands. My friend Linda had suggested it, saying it was "the white village of the Netherlands" - I had never heard of it, and was intrigued. So when we arrived, yes, all the houses were painted white!

As it turned out, the town was originally a community of wealthy noble women who came together to found an abby. The houses were painted white as a sign of virginity and purity. The community was similar to the "begijnhof" communities you find in Belgium. It was a lovely village and the church was beautiful, incredibly feminine in its decoration, right down to the pink marble and the lovely statues everywhere.

What my kids enjoyed the most about this church was all the hidden rooms one could visit, especially the one in the basement which had an exhibit of two mummified bodies of former head ladies of the abby plus the reliquary holding the forearm and hand of Saint Benedict. Very gruesome.

We finished off our day with a visit to Maasmechelen Village, an outlet shopping center, and then dinner at the little Italian restaurant there where I had the most delicious pasta e fagioli - it was so warm and comforting after walking around in the cold and wind all day!