Where oh where Wednesday - The Meuse and the canals

Much of The Netherlands is below sea level. Where we live in the valley of the Meuse on the Belgian side. Maastricht, where the church meets, is on the Dutch side. To be more clear, the Meuse runs right through the middle of Maastricht. In fact, the name of the city comes from the latin meaning where you can cross the Meuse (mosa trajectum).

But the Meuse is not the only water in our neighborhood. As I have mentioned on a previous Wednesday, a canal runs right behind where we live. Actually it is two canals. Our little canal and lock is a connecting canal. It connects the Albert Canal and the Zuid Willemsvaart (South William Canal). 

The Albert Canal runs to the Antwerp harbor past a while slew of industry in Belgium.  There used to be a Ford factory in Genk, not far from where we live. Nearer to Antwerp is a major factory for Nike, for Roland musical instrument and for Estee Lauder cosmetics. Toward the south, the Albert Canal takes goods to and from Liege in the French-speaking part of Belgium. Originally that was steel and munitions. The canal finally joins the Meuse (or begins at the Meuse) under this city. 

The Zuid Willemsvaart travels from our canal to the north through Belgium until it takes a jig to the East and enters the Netherlands. In the end this canal enters the Meuse above Den Bosch before the river ends at Rotterdam in the North Sea. 

The Meuse itself rises in France and travels north through Verdun and Sedan. It used to be the western border of the Holy Roman Empire. In the north it joined the Rhine until the Delta Works in The Netherlands separated the two rivers and made sure that the land behind the rivers could not be flooded again as had happened in the 1950’s. 

So, although we live in a quiet little village, the world passes by, moving together with the waters of history, industry and time.