Arnhem, The Netherlands

Day 4 - Arnhem, The Netherlands
We learned that this town was nearly destroyed during World War II.  Today it has many beautiful parks and gardens and unusual among Dutch cities, it has a more hilly terrain.  Our guide made sure to point out their waterfall too - it was all of four feet high, but a waterfall nonetheless!

On our bus ride out to the Airborne Museum she pointed out this house as having once belonged to Audrey Hepburn's grandparents.  Audrey lived in Arnhem during the WW II years.  I'm reading a book about those years right now called: Dutch Girl by Robert Matzen.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41219594-dutch-girl

Our first stop was the Airborne Cemetery at Oosterbeek.  Arnhem is famous for the Operation Market Gardens in WWII, in which the Allied forces attempted to secure a series of strategically important bridges in The Netherlands - the largest airborne operation ever undertaken at the time.  The operation failed and many lives were lost, including soldiers from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Poland, as well as Dutch civilians.  Every year the children of Arnhem come to the cemetery and "pay homage to the men who gave their lives for Liberation."
There is a movie that was made about this battle called "A Bridge Too Far".

This day was particularly meaningful for our friends Michelle and David, as her Dad was a part of Operation Market Gardens as a USA glider pilot.
Thankfully he returned home and lived a long life!

We next visited the Airborne Museum (above) and learned more about Operation Market Gardens in 1944.  It is really quite a museum and a very moving experience.


We stopped by this church - part of which survived the war.  You can still see bullet holes in the old part.

Interesting old tree!!

In the afternoon, I went to a stitching class onboard the ship with Sue Spargo, our friends went to an Open Air Museum (living history museum), and Mike walked around Arnhem and took some photos!



Below is a photo he took of our ship, taken from the top of the John Frost bridge, which is the famous "Bridge Too Far".

The John Frost Bridge

We enjoyed our day in Arnhem and once again, really learned a lot!!