The Far Bridge

September 17th 1944, eighty years from yesterday, the allied British and US armies began an attempt to bust their way through the front lines in the Netherlands so that they could sneak their way across the lower Rhein into Germany. It was a complicated plan. It was an ambitious plan. It was a doomed plan.

It was Operation Market-Garden.

The plan involved dropping loads of paratroopers behind enemy lines in order to capture a whole bunch of bridges before the Germans could properly defend them or destroy them. This would give the main army enough time to roll ground infantry and tanks up the long road from Eindhoven to Arnhem and from there to Germany.

I tonight arrived in Eindhoven where tomorrow I shall begin my bicycle journey over the next few days through Nijmegen and Arnhem where I will make endeavor to visit a few of the historic sights, in particular bridges that were infamously too far.

I am of course alluding to the book "A Bridge Too Far" which was made into a movie in 1977. It was one of the first movies I remember watching with my dad and at the time I thought it was the best war movie ever. Of course I saw it recently and it was actually not great, except that it had Sean Connery in it.

Yesterday, I went and had my Swapfiets affixed with a basket so that it could hold a backpack, as it is usually too hot to carry one on my back when I am biking. While it's not exactly a high end bike, it should be considerably more pleasant than riding on top of a tank, or in a tank, or anywhere near a tank, all the way though the country side.

So tomorrow, my plan is to head north out from Eindhoven to Son. I think there I will encounter the first bridge of importance. From Son, I will go to Sint Oedenrode. Next is a bridge in Veghel. This is where I originally planned to stop but there were no hotels available, so I will then go on to Uden where I have a place all nice and ready for when I arrive. This will be a bit over 30 kilometers. Then I will see where I will go the next day.