In which Sid and Doris cross moorland and countryside they had no inkling of to arrive at the site of a poorly planned battle, A Bridge Too Far.
Today’s vital statistics
Distance: 99 kilometres
Climb: 308 metres
Weather: warm and no villainous head winds
This has been a day with many different experiences. Start with breakfast. No, no pictures, but the dining room in the Hotel Americain is a gem of Jugendstil decor and a good place to sit and fuel. Cycling just is a bit prosaic. Hunger means no progress.
The cycle lanes of Amsterdam were empty on Saturday morning. One of the early delights was finding an ‘at scale canal’ with the big inland waterway vessels. Say what you like about the Dutch, they do a good canal and much of the early route was along canals.
In Amersfoort we stopped to see the old town walls and were thrilled to find a small barge with a three piece band and a choir singing ‘My bonny lies over the ocean’ so we helped with the chorus from the towpath. We were obviously not lost in the town, it just took a while to make our way through…
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The route has had us up all sorts of unlikely alleys, so here is Doris triumphantly emerging from a little tunnel. Phew.
Later we ran over the Veluwe moors. This feels like a cross between the New Forest and Salisbury Plain, even down to the military presence. While criss cossed with sandy tracks there was a narrow concrete path for maybe 15 kilometres.
We had a couple of helpers today. One was a lady of mature years who came past on a motor scooter. She kept a good pace and we drafted here for about five kilometres to her amusement and our delight. A later drafting episode with an old boy on an electric bike was slower and shorter but worth a few calories and a smile.
We have a moment to put up the car of the day. Early spots were an early convertible Beetle, a Corrado – you can see that completion was slight – and a ten year old Maserati. Until we saw the flat finned Chevrolet Impala from about 1960, convertible, in white. Nothing else came close. Bike of the Day: Moto Guzzi V7 Special. Still cool.
We have come into Arnhem via Oosterbeek, which was how the Allies on Operation Market Garden were supposed to come to join up with Colonel John Frost at the bridge over the Rhine. Bridges here have a rough history. The Dutch built a bridge here in the 1930’s but blew it to slow the German invasion. A new bridge was ready by August 1944. The Allies arrived in September. Though it survived Market Garden, unlike a lot of locals, US Marauders took it out that October to prevent German reinforcements going south.
We went to the Oosterbeek War Museum which comes pretty close to saying: the plan was over ambitious/optimistic, the generals did not react to new intelligence about the SS Panzer divisions nearby, it was brave but cost us our town. Hindsight, eh? The museum has panels in German, Dutch and English and very neutral in the way it reports the history. Sid is looking forward to interpretations of history that may have more of a point of view. I read the Cornelius Ryan ‘A bridge too far’ as a youth (and made all the Airfix kits too) and will get around to the Beevor version some time.
So, with less effort than the First Airborne (anyone want a ride in those towed Horsa gliders, with a Jeep?) we are here on the Rhine drinking beer. The John Frost bridge is away to our left and pizza is not far to seek.