Tulips and Windmills: Arnhem

 

It was gray and rainy when we awoke, and that was just how that day was going to be.

The included tour to Arnhem was an excursion to the Airborne Museum at Hartenstein. As the bus took us there, we were given an excellent history lesson, a fine retelling of the story of Operation Market Garden that we remembered from the movie, A Bridge Too Far.

The museum was excellent, but it was too crowded to take pictures, although I was able to snap one of the medals that various military men received. 

Museum gift shops are often interesting and in this one, Joe bought me a coffee mug with poppies as the design, a nice remembrance of the visit.

It was kind of a sobering -- gray and rainy -- morning as we pondered the number of military and civilian lives that were lost.

After our lunch back aboard Gefjon, Joe and I had signed up for an optional excursion to the Netherlands Open Air Museum, so we went, taking along a big red umbrella from the rack Viking had provided. We'd been to this type of museum before in Oslo and Stockholm, and always found them to be a worthwhile look at what life was like many years ago. 

The gray and rain did not deter visitors. The museum had a fine tram line which we took with our guide upon arriving; then we broke from the group and explored on foot, in and out of the rain, up and down with the umbrella. Oddly, our favorite part was the man demonstrating how rope is made. He also showed us how linen comes from flax.