Into Holland

Although not actually into Holland until lunchtime, it all looked Dutch today. The plentiful local clay & lack of any building stone, has led to brick houses, clay pantile roofs, & brick pavior cycle paths. Neat little villages are linked by cycle paths along dykes, overlooking fields of horses & cows. They are quite adventurous with new enterprises though, as we also saw kangaroos & llamas! We knew we were in Holland proper when the football supporting flags changed to orange. We camped at a lovely wooded site N. of Arnhem in an area of country houses & parks. Arnhem is understandably mostly post war, but the Station is a new colourful modern design. We took a photograph of the Station bikepark. There must have been at least a thousand bikes!

Our main reason for visiting Arnhem was to see the 'Bridge too Far'. Now called the 'John D Frost Bridge' after the commander of the only battalion of the First Airborne Division to reach the bridge in the attack of September 1944 - they held the bridge for 3 days waiting for the reinforcements that never arrived, & suffered enormous losses against a much larger German force. The photos of the complete devastation are on display. Every building around the bridge was destroyed. They only surrendered when they ran out of ammunition.

On our way W., we visitied a Dutch war grave site. All the hundreds of beautifully tended graves were very young soldiers, killed around the 11th of May 1940, when the German Army overwhelmed the Netherlands, on their way to France. We camped in beautiful woods at Doorn near Utrecht, with red squirrels & Greater Spotted Woodpeckers in the nearby trees.

We are now heading for Leiden to stay with friends & explore the Amsterdam area.