Rhine River trip, second report

Monday’s June 10, 2019 activities consisted of finishing an over night cruise from Amsterdam to Arnhem-Nijmegan, Netherlands

Linda and I went on a tour of the Netherlands Open-Air Museum in the Nijmegen area of the Netherlands.  This is 109-acre park, which features 80 historical homesteads, windmills, farms and factories from different parts of the Netherland country.  It is the most well maintained park of this nature that I have seen.  The quality and vastness are difficult to describe with brief sentences.  We started the tour early and lucky we did because later the large parking lot was filled to overflowing. It really is a family museum.  We were reminded that two thirds of the Netherlands country is below sea level as we studied the windmills. 

On the way to the park we passed Audrey Hepburn’s house that she stayed at as a child.  Their were very nice houses in the area and the forest area was extremely well maintained and a pleasure to look at.  Our guide gave us a description of the activities in the area during WWII. 95,000 residents of the area were evacuated during WWII and lived away from their homes for 6 months.   It is good they were absent because the town was destroyed.  The bridges in the area were of important concern tactically for the conduct of the war.  The locals honor the British Airborne Division, Polish Airborne Brigade who fought against two German Panzer divisions in the area.  The Airborne soldiers crossed the river in canvass boats at one point and 48 of them were killed in the process.  Every year, the locals have a midnight walk across the bridge to honor the dead and also reflect lights on the bridge blinking forty eight times.  Guest speakers are involved.  These Airborne units ran out of ammunition and were taken prisoner by the Germans.  I spent two years in Vietnam as a U.S. Army soldier.  I was involved in substantial combat operations the first year.  Sad, to my knowledge there are no positive publicly celebrated remembrances being made of our battles that is made by the locals in Vietnam.  To the victors goes the spoils and in this case the publically celebrated honors.  I have compassionate thoughts for all military personnel in all countries that fight and have no real effect for the purposes they are asked to fight for.

In the afternoon Linda and I walked the streets of Nijmegen and shopped. This was a holiday and the streets were very crowded.  We managed on our own to find our way back to the ship.  So far only 10, 995 steps walked on Monday. 

On the Rhine River we are sailing on, there is substantial ship traffic of every nature on a constant basis.  We spend much of the day watching the many ships, ferries, tug boats pushing cargo passing us by in all directions.  A massive movement is made.  It is entertaining to watch the variety and consider the contents of these mostly large watercraft. 

I did research on each of the cities that we will visit on this Rhine river cruise.  Every one of them was destroyed in WWII and has been subsequently rebuilt. 

So far much of our river movement is completed during the night. So the vision of seeing castles as we cruise along is not taking place. 

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Over the evening we moved down the Rhine River and anchored in Dusseldorf, Germany near old town.  Linda and I did a morning tour of old town and the new subway system.  Our guide was a local (they all are) named Peter Yeager. He lectured us non-stop starting at 9AM until 11:45AM.  He provided a detailed history of the area, buildings and the new subway system. Many of the older buildings had been mostly destroyed in WWII.  Many of the buildings were torn down with the old exteriors kept and fixed to the newly constructed buildings.  He showed us the HA area where some Germans congregated in the evening, weekends to consume large amounts of alcohol.  He showed us pictures of when the Rhine River had been deficient in water flow.  We saw the Rhine Tower.  Of interest, the subway had no ticket machine or people visible selling subway tickets. Peter informed us that if enforcers caught people without a ticket using the subway there is a considerable fine. There were many fine artistic features to the subway and it is very nice.  We also experienced two subway rides.  

Please see binghamevents.blogspot.com for pictures.