Meuse (Maas) River Run

There is some very pleasant running along the Meuse River (Dutch: Maas), in central Maastricht. It’s quite open, with nice views of the water and the historic center, then becoming more pastoral quite quickly just outside the city. Numerous bridges allow for a run incorporating the east and west sides. Since there’s not one, longer seamless path right along the river, here’s our guide to running on the east and west sides. There are good bridge crossings at Noorderbrug, Wilhelminaburg, Sint Servaasbrug, and Hoge Brug (burg=bridge). There aren’t crossing options south of the N278.

West Side (Historic Center of Maastricht). Overall, there’s ~2.5 km of good running on the west side. From the Sint Servaasbrug footbridge (oldest footbridge in the Netherlands), there’s a nice path along the river for 0.7 km north, to the end of the Biesenwal at the Landbouwbelang cultural center. It’s 1.8 km south, along a lovely path paralleling Maasboulevard, past the Hoge Bridge, through Stadspark, then crossing the N278 and continuing along Blekerij for a bit.

East Side. A longer, and more seamless path, for nearly 6 km. From Sint Servaasbrug, it’s 1 km north to Noorderbrug (bridge). Or, south for nearly 5 km, along the Stenenwal, past the Hoge Bridge and the N278, and then along the Gouvernementspad (Government Path), around the lovely Kleine Weerd Park, around the Maastricht marina, and then for another ~1 km along a lovely spit in a nature park to the Uitkijkpunt Maasplassen (observatory),