October 12 - Nijmegan

We are having the time of our lives.  Everyone we’ve met has had an interesting or humours story to tell us.  Their lives are interesting and have been filled with many varied views to life.  We’ve learned more about the social life in Australia in the past few days,  than we could have obtained with a master degree.  John, who is celebrating his honeymoon gave an  outstanding  performance on the spoons to Alexander’s Rag Time Band and received a standing ovation tonight.  It was far better than could be heard in a Newfie kitchen party.  As Rocky said it was spectacular.  

Susan and Dave from London Ontario told us a story about Dave stepping out of his shower, only to find that Susan had opened the curtains, leaving Dave exposing himself to the dining room of the boat which had docked beside his cruise ship while he was in the shower.

The weather is still terrible.  Marg said it reminded her of Vancouver in the winter.  Lots of drizzle and cool temperatures. There isn't anything we can do about it, so we just enjoy what we can.

 This morning we docked in Nijmaegan.  Nijmagen is one of the oldest cities in Europe.  The Romans granted the village  a charter for trading in the first century AD.  During the middle ages, the city was a central city in the Holy Roman Empire.  Barbarossa built a cathedral here and some of it is still standing.  Now the area on top of the hill is a site modern art and musical festivals.

In February 1944 during the second world war the city was bombed  by mistake by the Americans and the town center was destroyed and several hundred civilians were killed.  In the fall of 1944 the bridge over the river Rhine at Nijmegan was one of the bridges that needed to be captured during Operation Market Garden.  This campaign, if successful, would ended the war by Christmas 1944.  Unfortunately the town was captured much too late to relieve the British troops in Arnhem and the campaign was only a partial success.   To see the area where the Allied  troops had to cross the Rhine in rafts using their rifle butts as oars under intense enemy fire is sobering.

The town has been rebuilt and one of features of the city is that it will not allow cars into the inner city after a certain time of the day.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Mel, her mom Pam, Ken, Jase, Cooper and the rest of the Haskell family  on this very sad day.  We wish we could be there to lend a hand.

Pictures of Nijmegan