May 21, 2014

After thunderstorms on and off all night we’ve got a wet tent to deal with this morning which makes for a slow start to the day.  Ken is not in the best of moods either as his bike fell over whilst he was loading it and broke his sunglasses – he has a bit of sticky tape holding them together now.

When we eventually do get moving we quickly arrive at the city of Nijmegen, in an area rich in World War II history.  The bridge across the Waal in Nijmegen is one of those involved in Operation Market Garden when troops were dropped behind enemy lines in 1944 with the objective of securing the bridges at Nijmegen and Arnhem. 

After buying new sunglasses and partaking of a spot of lunch, we decide to depart from our route a little and head north to Arnhem on the river Lek, another of the Rhine branches, to take a look at the bridge (made famous in the film ‘A Bridge Too Far’) and also to visit the War Cemetery at Oosterbeek. 

Both Nijmegen and Arnhem seem to be undergoing major road building programmes and getting to where we want to be involves lots more closed cycle tracks and diversions – very frustrating.  We do get there but once we have looked around it is too late to move on so we find a camp-site in Oosterbeek. Cue the rain – action replay of last night – looks like another slow start tomorrow with wet kit.