I have always knew there were much better uses for all of those churches:

Dutch city turns church into a luxury experience
(CNN, November 19, 2008) 

Maastricht, The Netherlands – It has been a while since I’ve enjoyed going to church so much. 

As a lapsed Catholic I tend to keep my church attendances to Christmas and, if I’m feeling quite a lot of guilt, Easter. 

However, I would happily go to “church” at Maastricht’s Kruisherenhotel on a daily basis. 

A former gothic church and monastery dating from the 15th century, the buildings have been beautifully renovated to welcome disciples of a new kind of religion — luxury. 

Boasting 60 rooms, dazzling but sympathetic light installations and a mezzanine restaurant and accompanying womb-like wine bar in the church’s nave, it’s easy to be quickly converted. 

The food is also pretty good; my fish and scallops starter followed by venison the perfect communion for a late autumn evening. 

The Kruisherenhotel, though, is only one of Maastricht’s many gems. 

The southern Netherlands city of 120,000 people does not feature prominently on many lists of must-visit places, but it should. 

An easy train journey from Brussels and Amsterdam and a mid-distance journey from London, Paris and several German stations, Maastricht is laden with good restaurants (there are four Michelin-starred eateries), shopping, history, public art and surrounded by pretty villages with woodland walking paths. 

The city center, like a miniature Paris, is split in two by the Maas river. Roman history and a Latin Quarter featuring boutiques and art galleries dominate the left bank, while on the right the Bonnefanten — a contemporary art museum — and hip retro design shops hold forth. 

The religious theme continues on the left bank at Selexyz Dominicanen — yet another church that has been converted, this time into a fabulous English- and Dutch-language book store. 

Originally built in the 13th century by the Dominican order, its most recent use before 2007’s spectacular renovation was as an indoor bike pound. 

It now features a three-story black steel bookstack in the high nave, together with a noisy cafe in the choir. If it sounds like desecration, you couldn’t be more wrong. It is a book and architecture lover’s heaven on Earth. 

As proud locals tell my wife and me, there are plenty of empty churches in the area that could do with a similar makeover…

[Via Atheist Under Ur Bed]