Viewpoint Heimansgroeve in Vaals

You're standing at the Heimansgroeve, an old quarry in the Geul valley near Vaals, northwest of the hamlet of Cottessen. Look at the rock face in front of you. This is unusual stone for the Netherlands. It's coal sandstone and shale, around three hundred and thirty million years old, from the Carboniferous period. Hardly anywhere else in the country does rock this old reach the surface.