the excellent keys of Maastricht

And I forgot to mention the following… I’ve complained before that my least favorite aspect of Continental Europe is its high number of difficult keys and locks, which only rarely seem to be foolproof. Too often there is some special angle or vibration rate needed to make the keys work. I’m not used to this. Keys in the United States are designed for simpletons, and always seem to work on the first try no matter what you do, so I was not raised with many complicated lock-opening skills.

But complicated keys were not to be found at Jan Van Eyck in Maastricht, thank God. The keys they gave me were outstanding. It may sound like a small favor, but I’ve had an endless series of traumatic key nightmares ranging from Amsterdam to Paris to Nice to Dresden.