Roll-out

 I started late. I'm a late starter. I don't care, it makes me happy. It was over 30 kilometers from the place where I was staying near the central train station in Eindhoven to the simple but pleasant hotel in Uden. It took me a bit more than 3 hours, which makes me slow, but this also pleases me. Besides I was stopping the whole time to take pictures and to get lost (or to check my phone to not get lost).

I knew that I was on the correct route, the route known as the corridor, as almost as soon as I had started did I encounter installations along the road put in place to commemorate Eindhoven's liberation on September 18th 1944. Yes I am a day late! (This will be a recurring pattern. I had to delay by a day because I didn't want to miss what was to me an important beginners level fencing lesson on Tuesday evening. NO REGRETS).

In this photo you can see a depiction of operation market garden. On the left are the airplanes flying overhead and dropping paratroopers from the sky. The struggle to hold the bridges over the rivers and canals are depicted and you can see what is either an arriving American soldier or a fleeing German soldier in the foreground. The right side illustrates the other side the the liberation equation, which are the graves of the soldiers of both sides and civilians alike.

There were a few more of these kinds of light displays that continued along this road.

 

This one shows everything that led up to liberation. Indeed to arrive at this point, the allies had to leave Britain to land in France where first they had to take Caen and bust out through Falaise. The path to liberation led through Amiens and Arras, sites of critical First World War battles. Then through various unreadable Belgian cities until ultimately coming arriving in the Netherlands.

Not to far along the road, it appears I had made a wrong turn because I needed to adjust my trajectory to find my way back to the corridor.

Not too far along John F Kennedy lane I encounter an actual memorial to the 101st US Airborne infantry. The memorial itself has received fresh flowers and decorations.

The english portion of the plaque reads:

"Eindhoven was the first Dutch city to be liberated by the 101st Airborne Division. The 506th parachute infantry regiment and other units of this division entered Eindhoven and linked up with the British Second Army on the 18th of September 1944. This action successfully completed the initial phase of the division's mission - the seizure of the cooridor and the opening of the highway from Eindhoven to Veghel. This memorial plaque is placed in honor of those 'screaming eagles' who gave their lives in this campaign and as a token of esteem and friendship for the people of the Netherlands."

From there it was not too much farther to the first bridge on the journey. This bridge leads into the town of Son. This is not the original bridge. Unfortunately, the bridge which was the September 17th objective of the 101st Airborne was better guarded than they had anticipated and it was blown up by the Germans.

It wasn't a total disaster in that there were a whole bunch of people from the Dutch resistance who were on hand to provide the US Army with wood what could help them partially repair the bridge, but it was enough to cause a significant delay of the main army that was trying to get up the corridor in order to relieve more paratroopers on the way to Arnhem.

Next to the bridge where these little artificial parachutes strung up on these little poles. When I rode through Son there were many more of these placed all along the road decorated with red poppies.

There is more to be seen in this town. In the center by the church is a display showing the liberation as part of a "Remember September" campaign. This is a place that certainly remembers.

And so I continued north along the corridor, also known rather unpleasantly as "Hells Highway". The next place I would go is through Nijnsel and on to Sint Oedenrode.

I knew I was on the right trail as on the way in to Sint Oedenrode I passed going the other way a man on another bicycle dressed as an American WW2 era soldier, complete with a (presumably disabled and registered) rifle.

I took a break in Sint Oedenrode to fill up my water and to drop by to take a peek at this here castle. The castle is none other than Henkenshage! According to its website, it is the most beautiful castle in Brabant. I don't think I would know the veracity of this claim, so I will leave it at that.

Again, I was just taking a peek, so I don't really have anything to share about it other than the grounds surrounding it gave off a marvelous sense of tranquility and indeed beauty.

And so I come to another bridge. This is the Alzenau Bridge over the Dommel (It was temporarily named the Fred A. Hancock bridge and still bears the sign that says so). It turns out that this bridge was not on the list of objectives for Operation Market-Garden, but it became important. It was bitterly fought over and eventually successfully captured.

From Sint Oedenrode the scenery because a bit more tedious. During Operation Market-Garden, the road to Veghel was a difficult little two lane highway. I assure you, it is no longer so small anymore. It's always the difficult part of the ride when you must go along the giant multi-lane highways with looming overpasses and hurtling trucks.

It was around this time that I began to notice a large number of students, maybe around 13-14 years old, heading en-masse on the same route as me but in the opposite direction. I continued to pass such students for several kilometers all the way until Veghel. I was curious what they were up to but I never found out.

At any rate, the bridge over the Zuid-Willemsvaart is a colossal highway bridge, and furthermore is probably not the original. There was another smaller bridge that I should have photographed but I was too busy getting lost when I arrived at it.

From Verghel it is not a long ride to Uden which is where I will be staying tonight. I thought that today would be my biggest ride of the trip, but in fact tomorrow will be bigger. I do want to see if I can get an earlier start.

On toward Nijmegen which is where the 82nd US Airborne division met it's fate around that city and in Groesbeek. The question is, do I ride directly through Nijmegen or take the longer and more hilly way through Groesbeek? Hills? In the Netherlands? What?