Maastricht, a city to meet
Maastricht is a compact monumental city of Roman origin, and situated in the centre of Western Europe. It is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands and harbours a wealth of historic monuments. Maastricht is, after Amsterdam the second biggest tourist city and is well known from ‘the treaty of Maastricht’ in 1991 and placed the city international in the spotlights. It has 140.000 inhabitants. Some 50 million people are living within a radius of 200 km. As southern most city of The Netherlands it is located only a few kilometres from the german and the french speaking world.

Climate The climate in The Netherlands is maritime. Mild winters with frost and snow. The average temperature in March in Maastricht is approx. 11°C in the afternoon. The summer is moderately warm with temperature between 20°–24°C. Currency The currency in The Netherlands is the Dutch florin (Dfl.). Dfl. 100.– = EUR 45.38 / EUR 100.– = Dfl. 220.37

The Location of Maastricht

Maastricht is situated in the heart of Europe, bordered by Belgium and Germany with France right nearby. Maastricht, the sourthern most city in the Netherlands, is easy to reach by car, train or aeroplane.

By aeroplane
Maastricht Aachen Airport is located 12 km / 8 miles north of Maastricht’s city centre. It can be reached in less than 15 minutes by the A2 motorway. On weekdays there are 6 flights from Maastricht Aachen Airport to Amsterdam / Schiphol, and vice versa, 3 flights to and from London Stansted per day and 3 flights to and from Munich per day.

By train
Maastricht has 2 trainstations: Centraal and Randwijck (250 m from the MECC). Train connections between Maastricht and a number of European cities with an international airport (Amsterdam, Brussel, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Paris).

By car
Maastricht is connected with the European highway network.
Amsterdam (200 km), Bonn (120 km) and Paris (400 km) are all easy to reach.
Maastricht can be accessed by:
E25/A2:  Amsterdam–Luxembourg
E40:       Cologne–Brussels
E42:       Liège– Paris
E314:     Maastricht–Aachen

Local Transport
The Maastricht city bus company operates a service every five minutes between the centre of Maastricht, Maastricht Central Station and the MECC (Forum bus stop).
Participants can use the public bus transportation in Maastricht for free by showing their conference badge.
Every 15 minutes trains arrive and depart from Railway Station Maastricht Randwyck (3 minutes walk from the MECC) to Maastricht Central Railway station.

Map of Maastricht