Arnhem; Friday, 09 August, 2024

As I didn’t need to catch a bus back to the airport until 11am I had a bit of a lie-in and a late breakfast before packing my bags, checking out and walking over to the bus stop to catch the bus back over to Schiphol to pick up the train.

Normally there should be a half-hourly service that starts at Schiphol and heads over to Arnhem before continuing to Nijmegen, but due to engineering works the route was disrupted with the dreaded rail replacement bus in use, so I had to catch the train only half the way to the town of Driebergen-Zeist where I had to change onto a coach to complete the journey over to Arnhem, adding about 30 minutes to the journey time.

After getting off the coach, which was of course parked on the opposite side of the station building to my hotel, I wandered over and was able to checkin straightaway, drop my bags off and then headed out into town for a wander.

I had a long walk around the centre part of the old town of the city. Whilst most of this is a rebuild following substantial damage inflicted on the city during the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944 and subsequent bombing raids, it’s been carefully restored. The city is twinned with my hometown of Croydon, in part due to the similar levels of damage the towns suffered during the war. I think it’s fair to say that Arnhem did a much better job of patching itself back together.

The whole of the old town is pedestrianised, so I spent quite a long time wandering around the roads and lanes in the centre before finally emerging out on the opposite side at the Eusebiuskerk. This was the most important church in the Duchy of Gelderland which Arnhem was the capital of and spent many years as a royal church. One of the most important Dukes of Gelderland is still buried in the church.

The church suffered badly during the September 1944 battles with it reduced almost to ruins, with the damage of the tower so bad that it wasn’t possible to restore it – it needed to be rebuilt completely. The church is no longer actually in use for religious services, but it is now a major tourist attraction housing a museum telling the history of the church and the Dukes of Gelderland, as well as offering the chance to head down into the tombs below the church.

The former church also houses the city’s tourist office, but the most impressive part is the tower which you can be sped to the top of in a glass lift that takes you up to almost the top of the tower for views out over the city. Heading slightly further down the tower and close to the clockface two cantilevered glass boxes have been added that extend out from the tower allowing you to walk out into mid-air high above the church on one side and the ground a long way below on the other. Towards the bottom of the tower is a small exhibit that tells the story of the tower and it’s role before and during the battle as well as it’s fate.

I spent a bit more time wandering around the city centre taking in the sights, including the impressive Sabelspoort, the last surviving part of the old city walls, before heading back towards the hotel to find somewhere to grab dinner. After dinner I headed back to the hotel to freshen up before heading back out once the sun had set to take in the city at night and to get some photos of the city floodlit.

I wandered back through the centre of the old town which is clearly where the heart of the city is for the nightlife as the place was absolutely packed with bars taking up every inch of space in the squares and every table occupied.

Rather than stopping for a drink in the chaos I headed back to the hotel to take advantage of it’s roof-top bar to have a quick drink in, taking in the views, before turning in for the night.