An Overview

A bit of a twist

J had been working hard to find us somewhere to live for 6 mths. She didn't have much luck until coming across a familiar photograph. It turns out that our old apartment hadn't been rented or sold since we left so she contacted the landlord to see if we could move back in. Yup, now we will be living in exactly the same place as when we left. Not ideal, but at least we know where everything is!

And look: from buying to our door was 9995km

So, we're back. The same guys who moved us out moved us back. Most things are unpacked (mostly by J) so it's hard to prove we've been away. I'm suffering post-travel depression already, as we no longer have our day filled with... well, something. I played hockey with my old team and it was nice to see the guys again (though we could only field 8 for the pre-season friendly). We both go back to work on Monday - back to the early morning commute and the late return.

I guess this'll be the last post for a while, though I might let you know how much the toll bills work out to when they arrive, and whether I have to fight a parking ticket from Copenhagen...

Thanks for reading.

P

And back to reality

Well, here it is, our last day in Europe. The sun is shining and we're at the beach, and a lovely beach it is too. White sand, a good mile long, with cafes, restaurants, etc. Very shallow water though. We've run out of gas to cook with and to keep the fridge cold when we are stopped, and internet for the next week at least.

But all good things come to an end eventually and ours ends with a ferry ride.

Can't resist one more bunker. HoH was a German fortress position to guard the entrance to Rotterdam port and the river/canal system. This is one of the few remaining emplacements. (In this case a flak position.)

At least the ferry had internet, though you had to log in every 20 minutes.

Rather a smoggy welcome to the UK

We drove in the dark again to a campsite in the middle of nowhere. Check-in was closed of course, but we saw a few caravans and motorhomes sprinkled around the field so just stopped and plugged in for the night. It was actually a beautifully clear sky: J spotted a meteorite and then two satellites and you could actually make out the milky way. Most unusual for the UK in our experience.

Last night in Europe

After a short ferry trip over the Lek we took the backstreets to Utrecht to catch up with Karel again.

Some of these streets can get a little narrow. The bike lanes are ubiquitous.

We took up more of Karel's time than we should have before heading to Leiden.

Picnic dinner in the middle of a church square. Very European

The city lays on a park and ride so we didn't have to drive in and clog the streets. Very enlightened policy.

Leiden is another canal side town - stereotypically Dutch

We had a nice Italian meal but we weren't camping in town and had to drive to the coast in the dark. I think it was only the second time we'd done that in 4 months.

Our destination was a carpark close to the ferry terminal on the Hook of Holland. It was dark when we arrived and I had to tuck the motorhome into the last space - on an inside curve which makes parking a 6m vehicle interesting.

Just dropping in

We drove up the Liberty Road and crossed the bridge at Arnhem. The bridge is post-war as somewhat ironically the original was blown up after the battle to prevent the Germans from using it to supply their troops south of the river!

The southern approach

The northern approaches. The brick structure featured in the fighting, but you can see behind it that all is new. Some are even second generation new as the original '50's buildings are being replaced.

Continuing on we drove to Oosterbeek and the famous Hartenstein building that became the para's HQ/Hospital. I think we just missed Prince Charles' visit  - either before it or after it - as there were lots of vets, wartime vehicles,  etc, etc there.

Horsa glider. Charlie was shown sitting in the pilot's seat. Plebs weren't allowed.

A recreation of the HQ 'office'

I had been to the museum 30 years ago but it has been enlarged since then. It was pleasing to at last see a copy of the AtB twinset (Market-Garden: Then and Now), which we arranged to best light on the shelves.

Our camp ended up being in a fortress built in 1846 as part of the Water Line, the Dutch defensive positions built around deliberate flooding zones. The fortress now hosts a museum (only open Sundays), a cafe and a brewery.

Everdingen

Showerometer: 18

Bridge to Bridge

We got up early enough but were still finishing breakfast when we heard aircraft. There was a  Spitfire circling,  so we ran to get a half-decent view. It was followed by 5 Hercules (or 4 and a Transall?) that started dropping paras,  10 at a time each plane. They circled 18 times (we think) so that was 400 paras.

It was clear we weren't close enough, so we jumped on the bikes and pedalled to a better viewpoint.

After this drop finished we continued up to the official viewpoint and spent the next 4 hours there. In all there were around 1300 paras dropped in three bunches of around 400 each time,  plus a Dakota flight dropped a few.

My video is too big to upload, except for this snippet:

After all that excitement we moved a little closer to Arnhem to stop for the night.

Waiting for the fall

Today was teh opening of Op M-G 75 years ago. We discovered there was going to be a massed airdrop on the 18th at Groesbeek so we needed to fill in the day. We joined a tour group in Nijmegan, starting with a walking tour of some key places in that city, then a bus trip around spots further afield, and finished with a walking tour around the bridge area of Arnhem.

Our guide Rob shows us where the library used to stand.

Civilian victims of Allied bombing raids. About 600-700 were killed in a raid on the railway marshalling yards. There's debate about why the town was targeted.

A memorial to a school that was hit killing 24 children

???

The bridge over the Waal at Nijmegen, from the German strongpoint at the southern end

The Americans had been ordered not to make an early thrust on the bridge, and by the time they attacked again the Germans had formed a defence around the bridge. Even the arrival of land forces didn't break the defence. A group of paratroopers crossed the river in assault boats, overcame the defences on the far bank and then stormed the bridge. Fortunately the Germans failed to blow it during all that time.

A new bridge marks the place where the crossing was made

The memorial to the airborne at the crossing point. During the anniversary a veteran marches across the bridge and 48 lights are sequentially lit to mark his progress. They represent the 48 yanks killed.

Erik, our guide for this part of the trip

School trips are hard work for the teachers. Can you imagine this happening in the UK or NZ? Not a chance!

And here is the 'bridge too far' or at least its replacement. Arnhem road bridge.

To the right all the way to the bridge was flattened during the fighting. On the left the old mayoral building. 

Rather weird statue of Marshall (as of the Marshall Plan)

There were tour groups all over the bridge area of Arnhem, including a bus load from Leger, but ours cost the princely sum of €15 each for the full day, lunch included! Subsidised by the Nijmegen and Arnhem authorities. Admittedly we understood very little of the Dutch commentary but we did see various places and got a hint of what they were talking about.

In anticipation of the massed drops we camped just across the border in Kranenburg, within biking distance of the drop zones. Kranenburg had also been the first German town taken in Op Verity.