Gelderland

Gelderland

Wednesday 13th - Friday 15 June 2018

Gelderland is the largest province in the Netherlands and dates from Roman times when they conquered and torched Nijmegen. It is in a strategic position geographically as it borders Germany and the River Rhine flows through it, so the Province has had a varied and sometimes troubled history. And it is surprisingly hilly. 

The first hill that I encountered was only 5%, and as you can see Lucy sailed up it with heavy panniers laughing at the racing cyclists. It was about a kilometre long and while I cycled up I must have been passed by about 30 ‘racing cyclists’ powering up and down. Out of the saddle for the ascent and leaning low over their tri-bars as they descended. When they raced past me I wanted to shout, “Call this a hill, you need to climb a proper one”. Later I met a lot more short, steep hills on the trails through the forest. 

Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe

I spent a couple of days following the Knooppunten on trails, up and down, through the De Hoge Veluwe Nationaal Park, one of the largest nature reserves in the Netherlands. It was created during the Ice Age and consists of marshland, forest, heath and drift sand. 

As I approached Arnhem I cycled for about 12 kms on a new cycle path that was still being built.. It was like a cycle dual carriageway through the forest, well away from the busy main roads. 

A night on the Rhine

As it was late afternoon when I arrived on the outskirts of Arnhem, the capital of Gelderland, I decided to stop for the night and explore properly in the morning. It was a lovely evening and I had a room with a balcony overlooking the Rhine, so I whiled away a couple of hours or so watching the river. 

A Day in Arnhem 

Arnhem has been rebuilt after it was all but levelled, along with other towns in the area, during Operation Market Garden and the Battle of Arnhem in 1944.

First I cycled west along the Rhine for a few kms to visit the Airbornemuseum at Oosterbeek. The museum is housed in Hartenstein Mansion, the former HQ for the British Airborne Division in 1944, and tells the story of Operation Market Gerden. 

Operation Margret Garden was devised by General Montgomery as part of the liberation push through Europe after the D-Day landings. He believed that it would end WWII by Christmas. In the biggest aerial landing of the war, September 1944, Allied paratroopers were dropped over enemy lines to capture the bridges over the Rhine near Arnhem. After initial success, the campaign failed. They were ill-prepared, hadn’t realised that the German forces were as strong as they were and only had enough food supplies for a few days. They Battle of Arnhem ended in defeat and the Allied forces retreated on 25th September. 17,541 were killed, including troops from a Polish Bataillon, and thousands more were captured or badly injured. 

In the basement they have reconstructed a war-torn Arnhem and as you walk through the rubble a battle is rageing on all sides. After I left the museum I cycled to the War Graves. 

Lucy in deep thought at the grave of an unknown airman 

A Bridge Too Far

When I left the cemetery I cycled back along the Rhine to Arnhem to walk across the Johnfrostbrug. The bridge named after Major-General John Dutton Frost  who commanded the British forces that tried to defend the bridge during the battle of Arnhem. 

The infamous John Frostbrug - Arnhem

The small free museum near the bridge told the story of the battle of Arnhem using photographs and the words from the diaries of a British soldier, a German soldier and a member of the Dutch resistance who lost their lives at the bridge. There was also a pictorial/graphic film detailing the campaign using maps and charts. This was simple, but very effective, and in many ways this museum was more poignant than the much bigger museum at Hartenstein. Members of the Dutch Resistance, believing that Liberation was at hand, rose against their occupiers and suffered considerably after the Allied forces left.

A group of Dutch military who were visiting the bridge and the museum while I was there. 

I spent the evening in Arnhem and the next day I cycled west into Utrecht Province.