The Battle of Arnhem, “A Bridge Too Far”

Early in the week we learned that there was going to be a parachute drop to commemorate the Battle of Arnhem.  I emailed one of the reenactor groups to find out where and when the event would occur.  The event was going to happen at the Ginkel Heath on Saturday; they advised us to get there early.  We learned that there would be shuttle buses from the Ede-Wageningen train station to the Ginkel Heath starting at 8 AM Saturday.  So we left home at 5:30 AM Saturday.  Two trains later we were in Ede waiting for the first shuttle.  We didn’t know what to expect at the event.  We talked to a fellow while waiting and he told us that they were expecting 50,000 people!

There were already quite a few people at the heath when we arrived, and people kept coming all the time we were there.  We subsequently learned that this event has occurred every year since 1947.  There was a group of paragliders flying around the roped off drop zone, restored WWII military vehicles, WWII military reenactors all over the place and a bagpipe marching band.  There were people selling military pins, badges, clothes, etc.  Later in the day there was going to be a memorial service that included veterans of the battle.

We followed some of the crowd that walked into a wooded area away from the drop zone.   WWII reenactors had set up in the woods.  But in addition to the military guys there were men, women and children dressed in 1940s clothes.  There was also a group of guys dressed as Roman centurions!  I don’t know why they were there, but I’m guessing they were responsible for the trebuchet being there.  We didn’t stay with the reenactors to find out what was up because the parachute jump was about to happen.

The first parachute jump happened at 10 AM.  Five guys jumped out of a DC-3 Dakota.  The DC-3 came by a few minutes later and another five guys jumped out.  I thought that maybe that was going to be it for the parachuting, but was I ever wrong.  Starting from about 11 AM to 2 PM NATO airplanes kept flying over the drop zone and about 500 parachutists from at least six NATO countries eventually jumped!  It was quite a show.  People kept arriving all morning, there were bicycles everywhere.

We left the event around noon and took the shuttle back to the train/bus station.  We had another painting on the list of 1001 to track down.  The Koller-Muller Art is in The Netherland’s largest national park, and the park is relatively close to Ede-Wageningen.  We took a half hour bus ride to the park.  The park has 2,000 bikes that you ride from the entrance into the park, if you don’t have a car.  So we set off on the bikes for the Museum.  The ride through the park was very pleasant, and thankfully very flat.  Holland doesn’t have many hills.  Sue commented that we might have to get ourselves a couple of bikes.  The ride turned out to be about 5.2 kilometers long.  We passed a museum sign so we started to turn around.  I was headed back when I heard a crash!  Sue had slipped; her bike was down and she was sitting in the middle of the road!  There were two cars coming.  I hurried over to help her up.  The cars stopped and the drivers got out to help.  Sue was shaken up.  She had hurt her leg and scrapped her hand in the fall.  I helped her up and we got her and the bike out of the road.  Sue rested for a few minutes until she could put pressure on her leg.  Being the trooper she is she got back on the bike and we continued on to the museum; it was about 200 meters ahead in our original direction.  We hadn’t needed to turn around!  Sue was feeling better so we started out looking for the painting.  Sue commented that after all she has been through that painting had better be here!  Lucky for us it was.  This museum has a lot of paintings by van Gogh, a nice collection of Impressionist paintings and modern art.  It also has a large outdoor sculpture park.

We decided to leave the park by another exit because it was closer and there was supposed to be a bus stop there.  Well the exit was closer, about 2.2 kilometers, but we had to walk another kilometer to find the bus stop.  This bus took us to Arnhem.  While Sue waited at a Starbucks in the train/bus station I set off to find the famous bridge.  I found the bridge and a few other interesting sites.  I got back to the station about a minute after the train for Amsterdam left, so we had to wait a half hour for the next train.  We got home around 6 PM; it was a long but fun day (except for Sue’s fall).

But wait there is more.  This afternoon before I started to write too many words about our day I went out to the store.  On the way back I stepped into a motorbike!  I got knocked over and banged my shoulder against the bike, hit my head on the pavement and bent my glasses.  My shoulder is a little sore, but I got my glasses fixed, so it is all good.

Sep 22, 2012 Para Drop