If you travel by plane and land in Brussels Charleroi and then take the train to Maastricht, you need to take the train from Charleroi to Liege Guillemins and then from Liege Guillemins to Maastricht. Once you step off the train, the first sensation is: “wow”, if you are able to say something. What you will see is the wonderful architecture designed by the catalan Santiago Calatrava.
Since I was used to travel from Charleroi to Maastricht several times a year from 2007 to 2010, I saw year by year the construction stages of this monumental railway station and I remember that it was officially unveiled in 2009. It is for sure one of the best modern architecture examples you could see nowadays.
This is what you can see from the platforms ( and the same platforms too).
I love the external part of the station too
You can access to two levels: the upper level
and the ground level, always with its futuristic architecture, its bars, shops and restaurants.
If you want to come back to the platforms, please take at look at the different styles about the stairs.
You can also access to the platforms by taking the lift. It\’s interesting also to look at the design from the ground level.
Unfortunately, it\’s time to go to the airport. Bye bye Liege! 🙂
This railway station is one of the most impressive I have ever seen in Europe and well designed: the reason why it has been built like this is due to the high-speed trains like Thalys or Eurostar. However, even if I appreciate and love this modern architecture, I\’m wondering if this project was really necessary as some districts of Liege would really need a general and urgent improvement and if several million of euros or dollars should have not been allocated or used in a different way.
What do you think about this? Better to use money to build these wonders or recover and improve some declining districts of a city?
Well, after this little remark, the travel highlights section will be improved by another interesting post: the Alps seen from the plane! 🙂
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Very cool photos, Marco! I would love to see this in person. But you raise a good question. It is hard to see money spent like this when there are so many other primary needs ignored. No easy answer, eh?
Thanks a lot David! this is something that I was always thinking everytime I was there…clearly if they used that money to improve some districts of Liege we could not see this magnificent railway station, but also some districts there would need an urgent requalification. Yeah the answer is definitely difficult! 🙂 I hope you had great Easter days! 🙂