Arnhem

Slipping over the border in the last hours of the night, the Viking Sun reached the Netherlands where the river splits into five different bodies.  The details are of little importance, but we awoke to find ourselves in the small, but sort of important Dutch city of Arnhem.

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City gate, church renovation, and Louis Vuitton-esque brick façade

Post World War II reconstruction and church

Bits of the old town that survived or were rebuilt

Our official morning activity was to visit a memorial site to the Canadian and allied troops who died in an unsuccessful attempt to capture the bridge to facilitate movement into Nazi territory.  More info into the battle is available at the wikipedia article, there is not much more I can say because I did not go, despite a feisty octogenarian we had befriended saying "shame on you" to me.  The city of Arnhem, and many other parts of the Netherlands such as Rotterdam, suffered enormous losses and destruction during the war and becoming the sights of massive post war modernist reconstruction projects which are less appealing and accessible to Viking Sun passengers.


Arnhem