Next door to the Oude De Molen campsite in Groesbeek is the Freedom Museum. There has been a fairly recent renovation of this museum and it is now housed in a truly magnificent dome which we could see from the kitchen window in the van.
This is how it looked during an amazing sunset during our second night in Groesbeek.
Groesbeek played a major role in the journey to Berlin during the Market Garden and Veritable operations. Throughout the town there are information panels showing the route and pictures of the American airborne troops.
Unfortunately, at the age of 4, Christina is yet to fully appreciate or share my interests in military history. Therefore, I have resorted to dreadful parenting and let her play (mainly educational) games on my mobile. This does of course mean I then have to rely on her camera to take some photos. These will follow when I can find the lead to download them off the camera!
This is a link which will take you to the Freedom Museum's website.
The museum is the best I have ever been to about either World War. The way the museum is laid out, the information panels, videos depicting fictional people from the time (based on real experiences), displays and general aura will stay with me for a very long time.
Near the end of the story of the build up, life during, Market Garden and more modern conflicts and events is an area with a huge projection screen and the view is of the surrounding countryside. There are seats here which gives the feeling of a cinema experience. On one side are towers, one for each country involved in World War 2 and the military, civilian and combined total of those who perished. Each centimetre squared represents 1000 lost lives. This alone quite simply demonstrates the extent of lives lost and the devastation.
When I first arrived in the museum, the lovely man on reception gave a talk to introduce and explain the purpose of this museum. Unbelievably, he asked the other museum visitors during this talk whether they minded him conducting the talk in English, all because I was English. I thanked them all afterwards.
This was another example of how wonderful the Dutch people are and how well they are taught English. I have struggled to pronounce the simplest of phrases during my time here so far....
