Leerdam to Arnhem

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Another day heading east across the Netherlands. Very hot today and very little shade. Lots of riding on the top of dykes through lots of orchards and agricultural land. We resumed our practice of buying picnic ingredients before leaving town so we don't need to go looking for supermarkets later and having yoghurt and nuts for elevenses. Our elevenses today were sat on a village bench in the shade.



Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for our lunch as we had to go miles to find a bench and it was in the open sun. So we didn't hang around for too long but while we ate it we watched a large colony of Canadian geese on the side of the river. We agreed to stop and rest at the next bench in the shade but didn't stop for another ten miles where we had to go off route to go through a village where we spied a cafe so we sat inside and had an ice cream and a cold drink sat next to a fan.



After that it was only nine miles to our hotel in Arnhem.



After showers and a coffee the idea was to have an evening meal sat by the river side but it was still incredibly hot so we walked into the centre of town and sat outside under a parasol.



The bridge at Arnhem, and the activity around it during WW2 is the story told in the film 'A bridge too far'.

Just before arriving at Arnhem we saw the Memorial Royal Engineers (RE) and Royal Canadian Engineers (RCE) Driel which commemorates the evacuation of the survivors of the 1st British Airborne Division from Oosterbeek. This evacuation with the codename operation 'Berlin' took place on the evening and night of the 25th and 26th of September 1944. The storm and assault boats which made it possible to evacuate the troops on the north side of the river, went back and forth.



A second battle of Arnhem took place in April 1945 when the city was liberated by the British 49th Infantry Division fighting with the First Canadian army.



Arnhem is the capital of the province of Gelderland and located on both banks of the rivers Nederrijn and Sint-Jansbeek, which was the source of the city's development.



Its location in the foothills of the Veluwe, the largest forest in the Netherlands, contributes to some high precipitation levels.



A slightly shorter day today at 43 miles. (56 yesterday)

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