Get to breakfast at the Formule1 just in time as the coach loads of east european students decend like locusts, nabbing everything in site from the buffet for later. Ah well, kids - but the adults in charge didn't bat an eyelid. Must be getting a miserable old git to let things like that piss me off - after all its not my food they're having.
After a bit of research last night for todays route, I'm going near a German WW2 cemetery at Lommel - this one has 40,000 German soldiers in it, two per cross - astounding. Set in woods, very quite & peaceful (aren't they all?) and I'm the only one there.
On to Joes Bridge - the start of the Garden bit of 'Market Garden'. A 5km trip west along the canal from the modern dual carriage way.
This is where Michael Caine started from in the Bridge Too Far film - single track road, straight, between wooded areas filled with Germans and their guns! Through Valkensward, and around Eindhoven to the site of the Son bridge (in the film blown up just before Elliot Gould got there). Had a right palaver getting there as alot of road works and changes around Eindhoven meant the sat nav was useless and had to rely on intuition and following diversions. Onto and over the Veghel bridge, and onto Grave Bridge.
This is the 504th PIR memorial on the south side of the crossing and the bridge was renamed the John S Thompson Bridge after the American lieutenant who commanded the unit that captured it. Turn right just after the bridge and you come across this monument of rusting parachutes marking a landing zone in the fields on the way to Groesbeek.
There was a couple of workmen doing some work on the memorial site entrance, so said good day to them to be sociable and got a right ignorant grunt from one of them. His mate seemed embarrased about whatever he said and went onto explain about the monument whilst the other twat turned his back and mumbled away in dutch - wanker. If things had turned out different we could all have been speaking German I was tempted to say. Strange to get such a reaction especially at a memorial, unless 'good day' in dutch means I think you're a c**t. You can sense it pissed me off.
After riding through Groesbeek, its into Nijmegen and the rush hour for the last bridge of the day - the biggest and most impressive looking so far.
Total of 185 miles for the day and Elst is only 15 minutes away. I'm staying at the Wapen van Elst for the next two nights which is very nice indeed. When I asked where I could park the bike, the guy on reception took me to the back door and said leave it here, theres a canopy to stop it getting wet and its just beneath your room window - sorted.
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