Arctic Circle Return-2015


A longer trip was decided on this morning to visit Arnhem and see what the place was like…..

So after finding out from the campsite that we needed to take 2 buses we set off to the bus stop by using the bikes…..
When we arrived at the bus stop we find that we could go direct into Arnhem Centre by using just one bus, and after a 15 minute wait we are on it!



As we go along the Dyke at the side of the Rhein we pass under the railway bridge just after one of the Express Trains rattles its way over…..



Then very shortly we are at Arnhem Railway & Bus Station which looks very modern but it still being built……



After a quick trip into the Tourist Information Office which was just across the road from the Station we get a City Map and a couple of pointers for places of interest, so off we go to the first one which is the old Arnhem Kellers, (Cellers) which should have been through the ‘Ingang’ door in the bottom left hand corner of the following picture, but they were closed!…...



While the Cellars are under the buildings in a small triangular section some of the buildings had been renovated….





As we then came down the street on the right between the Cellars and the ‘yellow’ building which is the Bibleotek…..



We see….



This magnificent ‘Aardvarken’!…..





Then moving further into the city centre…..



We come to the church of St Eusebius which is undergoing major restoration, hence the scaffolding and covering…..



While you can see through a few windows, the ongoing work on the carvings that have been removed and need replacing....



As we then start to see information boards about the church….



While it is not a large church in terms of the amount of land it covers…..



It has had a chequered history……





As we decide to take the lift to the top of the tower for a view of the city….



As we go up through the hole in the roof like a rocket, but a bit slower…..



At the 7th Stop we get out and find that we have to go through this door…..



Then up these steps…..



Not many left now and we are at the top…..



As we can then take in the view over the city…..





While there was a small section in the tower that referred to ‘A Bridge To Far’ with additional information to what we had previously read, that proved to be quite shocking in what happened……







As we looked down the Rhein I spotted a barge making its way upriver, and the sight took me back to 1964 when I came over to spend 3 weeks on an exchange visit with a German boy’s family in Köln, and was amazed to see the massive barges going up and down the river mainly with coal as their cargo…..



While inside the church tower the lift mechanism was in the middle….





While in 1964 the barges I saw had 2 cars on the aft deck, that part hasn’t changed while the cargo might have……



Time to make our way down and as we do we pass the different levels with the church bells on, while the smaller ones are at the top, the lift was too fast to be able to get the bigger bells in a picture…..



We also managed to get one of the picture windows from a side chapel …..



As we then made our way across to the river we see this rather interesting mural on the wall of some flats…..



The down on the quayside is another slice of the Berlin Wall….



Along with a rather interesting Tug that would pull a couple of plain barges up or down the river…..





With the quayside crane still ready for work…..



As we moved back to the road further along the quayside we came to another of the memorials to the ‘Battle of Arnhem’…..



Which had some pictures and paintings of that time when the battle raged.....











As we then found a museum close by with a number of personal and very moving stories from military and civilians who were in Arnhem……



As we then walked a short way back along the riverfront we then came to an old but preserved one of the 4 gates into the city from the Middle Ages…..







Having passed through the portal we continued into the main shopping area with all the Sales being held in the shops while a few of the shops had closed down and like back home were empty…..



As we stopped in a small café for some lunch we spotted this very clever Electric Bike that has a baby carrier on the front that the lady standing by the bike had a small baby and a little girl of 2 in the ‘Pod’!
The bike will cover on electric around 30Kms which is ideal for coming into the city that has significant car parking ‘problems’ one of which is the cost!
While on the safety side, the city has an excellent network of ‘cycle lanes’ and motorists here are more tolerant of cyclists…..



With a couple more of the older buildings as we went around…..





And this statue of a Dear on a traffic island…..



It was time to head back to the Bus Station……



For the Number 36 back to our bikes and the short pedal back to the campsite….



On the road again tomorrow to Ypres……