Day Twenty Two: Arnhem - the Bridge at Arnhem: (Year 22: 1989)
Flash Back to 1989:
In Canada, hockey is always a big thing. But outdoor ice is rare where we live. Then we discovered the indoor arenas and a hockey craze started for the boys. Jeremy played in net, Josh typically on defence.
Our youngest was still in the age of innocence and imagination. As were we. Here is one of our favourites along those lines: Puff the Magic Dragon
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Flash Forward to 2017, the Netherlands:
It's about 4 km from the hotel up to the hospital, and I had been walking back and forth quite a bit. It walking enough that I got a blister and started to limp. So much for any future career as a Camino walker. Yesterday I stopped in to Spar and bought a box of bandages. Quite amazing - at home they mostly want to sell you useless plastic ones. But here 3 1/2 euros brought a whole fistful of those good fabric ones. It saved the day for me too.
But today I hatched a different plan. I bought a lock that might be good enough to hold my bike at the hospital. To get it, I asked a random cyclist for directions to a bike shop. After following that and I think almost being there, I asked another one. She directly me in a completely different direction. I think in Netherlands if you ask 10 people you will get directed to 10 shops, all different!
The man in the shop I did find understood that I could not carry a lot of weight. So I got a compromise - can not be snipped with a nipper, but can easily be defeated with a grinder. It's by Abus, the principle bike lock company here, and its the same type as Dodie got. So while I may be jealous of her bike, I too now have an Abus lock!
Walking to the hospital and even hiking up and down these seven flights of stairs seemed like a good idea, for a little while, anyway.
Dodie is not only still in the hospital, but they still do not have a diagnosis. That seems to make them very nervous (tell me about it!) and they do not want to let her out until they know. So now they will do a scope test, tomorrow. Even so, they are semi promising a discharge tomorrow too.
The situation is making Dodie crazy, as she repeatedly recalculates how many kms per day, and from where, we will have to do to ever complete this tour, as the days melt away and we go nowhere. It could be a little comic relief would help at this point, so how about this Canadian duo:
Dodie had recommended that I take my bike and head off to somewhere like Nijmegen, to look at the Bicycle Museum. It was a good thought, but honestly without Dodie it's just no fun.
I did take another spin around Arnhem, and made my way to the "Airborne at the Bridge" museum. Bridges naturally were important in WWII, and we have absorbed the story of the Pegasus Bridge, near the D-Day Beaches, and the bridge at Remagen, on the Rhine, each the subject of a movie. Well Arnhem also has its bridge and movie, the 1977 "A Bridge Too Far".
In the case of the bridge at Arnhem the time was September 1944 and the Allies had the idea of quickly jumping through Belgium and Netherlands to head for Berlin. This was before, as it happens 8 months before, the Canadians managed to come through and liberate Netherlands. In this plan, British and Polish paratroopers landed mainly just east of Arnhem at Oosterbeek, downriver on the Rhine. Some made their way to the bridge, and engaged in back and forth fighting on it and around it. More Polish paratroopers came in, south of the Rhine, but German resistance was stiff all around. Overall, the assault failed.
I did not follow the events in the months leading up to September 1944, nor what exactly happened in the several months after. There would surely have been a further battle for Arnhem, and the bridge was in fact destroyed at some point. The bridge we see today was reconstructed to the same design, and in fact the pylons are original.
For the other two bridges the plot is clearer, with the Allies generally surging forward. But here, not so simple. The display also was not so simple. Much unlike other displays, the narrative gives equal billing to the British/Polish and German sides. In fact, there is an equal three way split, with a story also being told for the Dutch residents in the area, and at least one Dutch soldier involved in the conflict. Actually, the actor in one of the presentation films portraying the German side rather smugly declares this was resounding defeat of the Brits and the last great triumph of the Reich.
Very touching was a spotlight on one soldier each from the British/Polish, Germans, and Dutch. Different details of the life of each are given. But one thing is common - place of death - Arnhem.
Sometimes travellers may be ridiculed for going to a new place and then eating at McDonalds. Well, it can be good to have something you know. So after cruising through the whole downtown today I went back to the Schwarma place I had found yesterday. It was somehow comforting to see again the Turkish guy who had made up my plate yesterday, and to sit at "my" table. In case you think I am completely unadventurous, though, you should note that I went for schwarma on a bun rather than on a plate.
I followed this up by going to "my" patisserie, which I have determined is actually the only patisserie in town. Other bakeries are ok, but they feature what can be uninspired buns and apple cakes. Again, just to change things up, I sat at a table in the patisserie rather than getting a take out, and I added an Illy coffee. Illy is very famous and expensive. It tasted fairly normal to me.
I also think that though a "patisserie", this place was not really up to French or German standards. The giant chocolate ball I got had quite thick and firm chocolate on a quite thick and firm chou pastry. Inside was an infinite amount of whipped cream. It was hard on the whiskers and so much that even I felt almost sick at the end.
They have lifted Dodie's quarantine so she was able to come with me for a quick tour of the hospital main floor. She enjoyed it, but really she needs to get out. That is, she needs to get out! Maybe tomorrow. And if yes, we are jumping on a train to Germany and leaving this country that we (used to) love behind!
Dutch fast food features many types of croquettes.
Typical Dutch baking is a little boring. (and Sandra, if you think those dark squares over on the right could be mohn (poppyseed), nope, they are just chocolate.) I will have to wait for Germany for my really favourite choices.
Cranking my unloaded Friday up to the hospital I thought I was putting in a good effort. When a young girl just glided on by me, I thought she must have an ebike. But no. When I caught up at a light, I thought I might give her a compliment, but she was too busy casually texting while cycling. I think I would like to blame my bike for being so easily passed, but I might have to admit that a 50 year age difference could be part of it.
The three way flow of traffic - car, bike, pedestrian means you always have to be alert, and each stream has its own traffic lights. I have noticed that the car drivers are not prone to giving anyone a break. But at this intersection I was surprised when, while I was following a green bike light, a bus came at me, blasting his horn. I skittered out of the way, but went back to the scene to check it out. This shot is from the perspective of the bus. He had no light to stop him barreling into those pedestrians or any cyclists (like me) that might have been on the path beside them. So he would have needed instead to use caution and courtesy. I described this lapse to a local person and they put forward the hypothesis that the country is too small and with too many people. I don't know, but I do know we have learned you can not expect that car (any car) to stop for you.By the way, the red signs and green signs on that pole are all bicycle guidance - still great. One of the red signs points to Osterbeek, the site of my story about the Airborne attack aimed at the bridge.
