Netherlands Trip Day 7 - Arnhem to Amsterdam (Friday July 26th, 2019)

December 07, 2019

Netherlands Trip Day 7 - Arnhem to Amsterdam (Friday July 26th, 2019)

I slept on a single bed close to the window again. Even though we were several floors up, I could hear the noise from the street level almost the entire night. There was someone on a bike that went around the block multiple times through the night making weird electric noises. It was probably one of the partiers from the "coffee shop".

We got up at a decent time and got breakfast at the buffet on the first floor. We were finally heading to Amsterdam after being in the country for an entire week. Before we head into the big city, we were going to visit Airborne at the Bridge since it was closed yesterday and its twin Airborne Museum 'Hartenstein' at Oosterbeek, town just a few miles west of Arnhem.

Before leaving town, we'll visit the Arnhem Thursday market.

"Express Start"

Jonge and Oude Kaas

Wonder where Holiday Inn gets the fresh bread

Full plate

Self-squeezed juice bar

We headed out for the Thursday market around 9:30 am. The market is just down the street from the hotel by Sabelspoort. The vibe from the city is drastically different from the party feel the night before. The city now feels lively with family out shopping for the goods for the week.

Walking by St. Eusebius' Church before reaching the market

An old bank building by the church tower

A monochromatic take of St. Eusebius

Flower section lined the old church

Roses section

Shade is good

Bouquets ready to go

Fresh produce

Hats and clothes

Always a need for used items

Happy summer day in Gelderland?

St. Eusebius Thursday morning

The lively Thursday market with St. Eusebius in the background

The hot food section - a fried fish stand "Scheveningse Zeeveshandel". It's always vers en lekker "fresh and delicious"

Another fish stand

Fresh herring - summer is the season

Cheese shop

Old cheese

Fresh cherries

Asparagus

Strawberries

Mangos!

Fresh berries

A very serious Kaas (cheese) stand

Freshly baked goods

All kinds of goodies

More good stuff

Making it to the edge of the market

Making it to the "Provinciehuis", the Government Building of Arnhem

Facade of the Provinciehuis, it was designated as National Monument since 2007

The medieval Sabelspoort, dated back to the 14th century. One of the four original city gates. It was renovated since the Second World War. The Habsburg Double-headed Eagle can be seen on top of the gate

Gone "medieval" at Sabelspoort

South side of the gate

View of John Frost Bridge "John Frostbrug" outside of Sabelspoort

British 1st Airborne Division Flag and John Frost Bridge along the Lower Rhine River

Airborne at the Bridge

Arnhem saw major battle in WWII. During latter part of 1944, Allied commanders hope to end the war by Christmas thus launched "Operation Market Garden". Operation Market Garden was a land and air operation. Land - Garden and air - Market. The Land part was comprised of British XXX corp and the air part was comprised of US 101st and 82nd airborne, British 1st Division, and the Polish Parachute Brigade. The ground troop of the British XXX corp was to traverse through various bridges secured by American parachupers along key river crossings and meet up with the British airborne troops that were to land behind enemy lines north of Arnhem. However, due to the presence of the 2nd SS Panzer Corp and various German resistance along the "Hell's Highway" from South of Netherlands to Arnhem, the British XXX corp was not able to get to Arnhem on time. Most of the British 1st division paratroopers suffered heavy casualties. Many were killed and were taken prisoners. LT John Frost and his men of the British 1st Airborne landed at Oosterbeek about a few km west of Arnhem, and they were the main allied force holding the north end of the bridge south of Arnhem. Their heroic actions to secure and liberate Arnhem was forever memorialized at the twin Airborne Museums.

Operation Market Garden Allied Plan - "Hell's Highway". We drove along this highway into Arnhem without seeing any German resistance

Airborne At the Bridge

MM at Airborne At the Bridge

Looking back at Arnhem from the Airborne musuem

Lower Rhine

Kids watching a brief documentary about the battle of Arnhem

At the basement of the small museum, a projected battle of Arnhem being shown

British paratrooper for the day, taking a picture with the friendly elderly volunteer

Even though Airborne at the Bridge was free, we had to purchase ticket for the twin museum at Oosterbeek. After a short tour at the Airborne at the Bridge, we walked along the Lower Rhine back to our hotel. We picked up a few items at Albert Heijn across from our hotel and drove towards Oosterbeek.

Short walk back to our hotel along the Lower Rhine

A stroll along Arnhem, a city that was nearly completely destroyed during WWII

Leaving Arnhem, a moving visit for me

Picking up some fresh bread at Albert Heijn before heading out

Check out line at Albert Heijn

Oosterbeek - Airborne Museum Hartenstein

Oosterbeek is a little town about 5 km west of Arnhem. Comparing to the Industrial feel of Arnhem, Oosterbeek seemed charming. We drove along N225 the local surface road. We arrived in Oosterbeek in just a few minutes. 74 years after WWII, we can still see banners commemorating the heroic actions of the British Airborne troops. Our main site of visit - Airborne Museum Hartenstein was just off the main road of town. We parked at a small lot one block away from the museum. There was a little cafe by the lot shared with the museum. The walls by the lot looked like it had been around for quite awhile. After a short 5 minute walk, we were at Airborne Museum Hartenstein.

The museum was once Villa Hartenstein, a hotel located in Oosterbeek. During Operation Market Garden, it was used by British 1st Airborne Division as the commanding HQ. It suffered major battle with the German SS Panzer division during the battle of Arnhem. Today this site has been converted to a museum with interactive experience to educate the next generation about the heroic acts during WWII.

We are on the right parking lot

A patch of old brick wall by the parking lot

90 m to the left

A memorial statue behind the museum

A plaque given to the citizen of Gelderland by the British troops, thanking the citizens of Gelderland for their courage to help them and not blame them for the death brought upon them. As citizens of the world today, we can learn a thing or two from the people of Gelderland

A British tank outside the museum

Airborne Museum Hartenstein

Various decorations given to British soldiers and citizens of Gelderland. The decoration for K. Ter Horst, a person who gave up her house to the allied soldiers as a make-shift hospital is shown here

Airborne troop outfits

The allied rifle "M1-Garand", the rifle that won the war

At the first floor of "Hartenstein"

A place to be remembered

It is now close to noon time. We have visited now two museums at a market. It's only half way through the day. After a quick visit at Oosterbeek, we were finally on our way to Amsterdam. Our first stop in Amsterdam was Albert Cyup Markt, the largest market in the city.

Amsterdam

Albert Cyup Markt

Albert Cyup Markt is located in the city of Amsterdam just north of the De Pijp neighborhood. We parked at an underground pay lot with super narrow entrance. The short walk from our lot took us through the De Pijp neighborhood to the Albert Cyup Markt. Our main objective was to find the famed Stroopwafel stand right in the center of the market.

Tight entry to the underground lot

Parking lot location

Short walk to Albert Cyup through the De Pijp neighborhood

Reaching the Albert Cyup Markt

Goodies at the market

Olive Stand

Characteristic Dutch Home Business - a lifting crane on top of the building

Getting some chicken - The Best of the Market

Getting some juice after eating the chicken

Fresh coconut

Located "The" Stroopwafel Stand - Rudi's

The Original Stroopwafel

The stand is run by a father and a son. The son is only 9 years old. He was a real friendly boy. We asked if we could take a picture with him and he got out of the stand and took a picture with us.

The picture with the owner's son. He was taking the order and was also the cashier

After successfully accomplishing our stroopwafel objective, we explored the market a bit more and started to head back to the west side where we walked in. Surprisingly, after hitting 2 museums and 2 markets up to this point today, it was only about 2:30 pm. So we decided to hit another museum. It wasn't just any museum. We decided to tackle the Rijksmuseum.

The Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum, located in the neighborhood of "Museumkwartier" or Museumquarter, is the main national museum. The main gallery (The Gallery of Honour) houses some of the most treasured pieces of Dutch Renaissance art including the Night Watch by Rembrandt, Isaac and Rebecca by Rembrandt, the Milkmaid by Vermeer, the Woman Reading a Letter by Vermeer just to name a few.

It was a short walk from through De Pijp along the canal to the Rijksmuseum but the temperature and the heat from the city exhaust was nearly unbearable. When we finally made it to the Rijksmuseum, we were badly in need of some refreshment. We waited in the intimidating looking museum cafe line. However, it moved pretty swiftly. While everyone else was waiting in line for the cafe, I went to get the museum tickets. I asked if I only had one hour to visit the museum, which gallery should I go, the knowledgeable staff told me directly in no-non-sense Dutch fashion, go straight to the Gallery of Honour.

We sat and enjoyed our coffee and drinks at the museum cafe to regain our energy and footing. After this much needed break, we set out to the Gallery of Honour just before 4:00 pm.

Making to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam summer heat

Crossing Judith Leysterbrug before Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum

Taking a much needed break at the cafe

Fanta and muffin, just the right combo

Coffee and brownie

Tickets are beautifully designed

Lego at the Rijksmuseum

After the much needed refreshment, we headed to the main atrium then passed the security to enter the exhibit galleries. We started on the ground floor (floor 0) the headed one flight of stairs to the first floor. The exhibits are organized by time period and wings. Floor 0 is special exhibit and 1100-1600. Floor 1 is 1700-1800 and 1800-1900. Our target is floor 2 (1600-1650 and 1650-1700) where the Gallery of Honour is located. Due to limited time and energy, we focused on our visit to the Gallery of Honour which focused on Dutch Golden Age paintings.

The Milkmaid (Vermeer)

A very unclear shot of the Woman Reading a Letter (Vermeer)

The Jewish Bride (Rembrandt)

The Night Watch Gallery, which house the most famous painting in the museum, The Night Watch by Rembrandt. A macro XRF scanner is being used to analyze the painting

A Van Gogh self portrait on the first floor (19th century)

GG's collage

A Dutch merchant ship model - VOC!

Passing by the Cuypers Library

Beautiful glass by the stairway

Delftware tiles

Back to the ground floor after the whistle visit

Good daugther

Enjoyed the museum

The awkward family selfie

Why is MM up there?

Getting artistic

After visiting the Rijksmuseum, we rode the very touristy tricycles to our dinner spot - "Pasta Pasta" in the De Pijp neighborhood closer to where we parked our car. The restaurant was opened by a young Afghan entrepreneur. We took our time to enjoy our meal. After dinner, we walked to an ice cream shop (Massimo Gelato) in a residential neighborhood of De Pijp to get some home made gelato. We were taking in the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam. Our parking lot was nearby a beautiful canal with a nice view of the Rijksmuseum. We took some more photos by the canal and drove to our hotel south of Amsterdam in the business district of Zuidas.

At Pasta Pasta

Getting hungry

Pesto

De Pijp

The Kerk in the De Pijp

More dessert - Massimo Gelato

Albert Cyup Markt - all closed down

Bikes lined the street

Rijksmuseum can be seen in the distance

Canal view by the parking structure

Zuidas

Zuidas is a business district south of Amsterdam. Our hotel - Holiday Inn Amsterdam is located at this somewhat gritty business district. It is a short train ride away from the center of the town. After settling in the hotel, Joanne and I took a walk to the nearby Albert Heijn Market at "Gelderlandplein" for our evening paseo to burn off some of the calorie intake. We called it a night after 9:30 after walking back to our hotel from the market with some fruit in hand. It has been a long day.

The business district of Zuidas