Netherlands American Cemetery & Memorial

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Set amid beautiful lawns, oak trees and azalea bushes 9km southeast of Maastricht, this thought-provokingly vast WWII cemetery has 8301 white gravestones in seemingly endless arcs behind a white chapel-monolith. A further 1722 names are inscribed on 'tablets of the missing'. These are for US soldiers who died in the Netherlands, trying to breach Nazi defences during various campaigns in the closing years of WWII (1944–45) including the disastrous Operation Market Garden.

A new visitor centre is planned by 2021. Bus 350 stops four times hourly on the N278, 300m north of the cemetery, between Maastricht station (€2.60, 20 minutes) and Aachen (Germany, €4.60, 40 minutes).

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