We found a lovely aire/stellpatz just south of Nijmegen (https://camperplaatsmalden.nl) and settled in to what was to become our new home for a long time! The camperplaats Malden is a working farm and we often had a decidedly bovine serenade and bouquet!

We had picked Nijmegen as the local GoCycle dealer, FIJN-Fietsen (https://fijn-fietsen.nl) is listed on the GoCycle website as having a GoCycle guru. We had also chosen Nijmegen as it is on the “Bridge too Far” road and we had wanted to visit some of the sites of Operation Market Garden. Nijmegen is also probably the oldest town in the Netherlands, dating back to the Romans, at least.

What was Operation Market Garden? In short, in my amateur opinion, albeit shared by several authors, it is yet another proof that General Montgomery was not very good, and worse, not willing to own up to his failings. (See: General Sosabowski) For a reasonable overview, start with the Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Market_Garden) and move on to books by Cornelius Ryan or Trevor Beevor.

Setting out from the campsite, we rode through a pretty forest and dropped right onto the amazing Dutch cycle route network. In fact, we reached town so quickly that we overshot our turn! The “guru” turned out to be Roy Fijn, the owner of the shop and a wonderful bike nut and GoCycle enthusiast. Roy took the time to look at both bicycles and found a quirk with the one that did have power, plus the need for new brake pads. So he agreed to place the order for the parts and hoped they would be in the following day. Great news!

Unfortunately, Murphy noticed the situation and struck! That night we learned that the parts (motherboards) were only available in the UK and there were only two there. They would be sent but due to the holiday weekend (yes, another one!) it would be the following week before they arrived. Fred meanwhile was managing to cycle with no power, as Holland is fortunately quite flat! So we set out to plot how to spend the next few days.

The weather forecast in Nijmegen was decent for the following day, so we organized the bikes and set out to visit Nijmegen. We found the old town and Market Square easily and began our visit with coffee and apple pie (with whipped cream of course) watching huge trucks descend the narrow, medieval pedestrian walkway we had just climbed. Great fun!

After Denise raided the cheese shop, we moved on to the city tourist office and then went to the Church of St. Stevens. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Stephen%27s_Church,_Nijmegen) This was most interesting as it is now a Protestant church. It had been both Catholic and Protestant multiple times in the past, depending on the politics of the day and this was clearly visible especially when looking at the altar.

It was then time to find the remains of the old castle which had been demolished in 1795 to make cement. (!!! Talk about commercializing your history!) (https://en.intonijmegen.com/discover/history/historicaltimeline/demolition-of-the-castle-nijmegen-loses-its-crown-jewel) We found the ruins of the St Nicholas Chapel, also known as the Valkhof Chapel, which dates back to 1030. This makes it one of the oldest surviving stone buildings in the Netherlands. We also saw the Barbarossa ruins which date back to 1155. Both were part of this huge castle. The view of the Bridge, which had been taken by the US 82nd Airborne during Operation Market Garden, in 1944, was also good. Though the trees could have used a trim as they rather intruded on the view. There is an excellent site outlining a personal view of Market Garden and Nijmegen. (https://alondoninheritance.com/out-of-london/operation-market-garden-nijmegen-and-the-valkhof/) The Valkhof park was a center of German defense of Nijmegen.

We decided to get a better view and went down to the river’s edge, where we found restaurants as well as a great view of the bridge!

We could not resist and thoroughly enjoyed our lunch as we watched barges passing by on the river. Trivia. This bridge was actually built by the Germans as the Dutch blew the original, 1930’s bridge, when the Germans invaded. In Market Garden, this was the bridge that was not too far, but was, perhaps, too late.

Nijmegen has a lot of museums. One of the more interesting ones is the De Bastei Museum. (https://www.debastei.nl/en) The De Bastei (“the bastion”) museum, which was built into the remaining ramparts of the old castle, literally, an old gun bastion, is a bit of an interesting train wreck of museums, covering ruins, dating back to the Romans, and concluding with do it yourself mechanical exhibits which allow you to try to bridge the river, Roman style, set up a river powered ferry, and control flooding. Hours of education and entertainment! The museum brought to life the centuries long relationship between the river and the town from the earliest days when the Romans first established a town there to the present day.

It had cooled off and dark clouds were amassing, so we decided to head for home. Unfortunately the rain started very quickly and was heavy at times, so we arrived back at the camper looking like chilled drowned rats! Hot cappuccinos were required!

The next day quickly became laundry day with all the wet clothes to deal with. We found a local Revolution laundry about twenty minutes drive away, conveniently located by a DIY store so that we could A: park the truck and B: Fred could shop for Rust-oleum paint so that Fred can repaint the roof rack over the cab – it is rusting, We were successful in both endeavors, but the actual painting will have to await a week of sunshine!