Bastion Nijmegen

... to be around that time, I wasn't able to book a hostel for just a few days, so I had to book for 11 days in a row. Gives me at least some time to get a good impression of the city (I hope). Maybe I'll even go visit some musicals, like Mamma Mia and Wicked. :-)<br>

An early start saw us catching the 08.36 train from Amsterdam Centraal bound for Amersfoort Vathorst. The journey took about an hour heading due east from the city. Vathorst is a new urban quarter of approx 560ha in size located to the north of Amersfoort, and is being promoted under the city theme of 'a world of difference'. The development stems from the Fourth Memorandum of Spatial Planning, a national programme dating back to 1993 and is part of the Vinex programme ...

If anyone out there is from Holland or even Eindhoven, please feel free to drop me a note and let me know if I am just missing something here or if I just visited on an off day.<br><br>The globe for me is a giant target for just about anything that normal people would pass up such as that mile long apartment building in Gdansk. How can you not want to see that??!! I just may have stumbled across the most unusual city I have ever come across in all my travels and I present to ...

... It is a round room that includes the names of all that gave their life for the taking back of the Netherlands. A pretty sombering place. <br><br>As I sat in that hall I struck up a conversation with Daryl Whitfield. He was a 505 vet with the 82nd. As we talked and he shared some stories about his time in the service, including telling me about him being in combat right here in Holland, a weird feeling came over me that many of the men ...

... pictures. <br><br> Our escort then took us back into Nijmegen and over the Waal River bridge in the jeep. That was awesome, too. And yes, I have pictures. We cruised across the bridge, windshield down of course, and back again into Nijmegen. <br><br>After we were dropped off, I was picked up by Martijn. Martijn is a young guy that knew Paul Miller. Paul was a medic with the 506th and he met Martijn on his last trip to Europe. Paul ...

... that was waaay before Columbus even sailed the ocean blue... One of the coolest places in the city is the cathedral and the marketplace right next to it. It is really interesting to see the difference in the architecture between Holland, Italy and Spain (I would say and the rest of Europe, but I haven't seen it all yet!) because a few of the buildings in the marketplace ...

... between noon and six but it must have been at least 60 or 70. By 6 o'clock most of the guests had left and the party turned into a family affair. The group slowly dwindled until by midnight it was me, Welmoed, Pepi, Bogusia and Marc endlessly telling jokes. Wow! 80 years old and she partied for 12 hours! <br><br> <br> <br><br>

... Anyway now we had time to see a bit of Groningen which is a wonderful old town, a bit like Nijmegen but as there was no damage during the war it kept its original features better. Martinie Toren is the highest church tower in Holland, there are canals and beautiful parks and the station is absolutely fabulous. TRAIN BACK TO NIJMEGEN, 3 hours which took us 5 days on the bike. We stopped to see the 4-daagse last day . They were very unfortunately as the just ...

... do or not like to do. Michael goes to University every day, he got a nice room there with a computer no phone unfortunately but he seems happy and hopes to get a lot of work done. The first weeks we spend doing the every day things, shopping, seeing family, riding our bikes along the canal or vennen or Maas , we went for a nice walk "op de Moker Hei" after which my brother invited us for a wonderfull dinner in "t Swaantje" The weather has been exceptoionally good ...

... was looking forward to it when I got here. After that we got some money from the ATM, ouch, the exchange rate is not in favor for the US dollar, and walked around a market they have on Sundays. Checked out the stores and the canals, and just had a pleasant day of walking around. The weather was nice also, mostly sunny and in the low 60's. Anita also took me to check out the Dom town, which is just incredible. Here's a bit of info on it: the Dom tower is the highest tower in the ...