Arnhem; Sunday, 11 August, 2024

I had another nice long lie in and a late breakfast before checking out of the hotel and going for a wander.

I hadn’t got much planned for the day as I’d seen all the museums and attractions I’d wanted to visit, so instead I just had a couple of hours wandering around the parks and gardens of the centre of the city.

I started off by heading over to the Eastern side of the city to the Musispark, located between the Airborneplein and the Musis concert hall this wide park with a large lake running down the middle of it has lots of well established trees and on a really hot day it was a welcome release from the heat to be able to wander amongst the shade.

The Musispark runs up until the very impressive 19th century concert hall of the same name, which I had a quick look around the outside of, before continuing north and west as the Janspark, a series of formal gardens with fountains and hedges. There was less tree cover here, but I was still able to find a bench in the shade close to the water cascading down from one of the large fountains in the centre.

I headed into the centre of the old town for a quick lunch, and to stock up on some more water for the afternoon, having already got my way through the litre I’d brought from the hotel. I had a bit more of a wander around the city centre before heading up behind the station and into the Park Sonsbeek.

This is a very large park, part of a former stately home and estate, with my main target for the afternoon being the belvedere tower located at one of the highest points of the grounds. The tower managed to survive the war as it wasn’t quite tall enough to appear out the top of the trees and was therefore of no use to anyone defending the city, and not really a target for bombers. It was only after the war that an additional 5 meters was added to the top so that now from the top of the tower you can look out over the whole of the park and the city and over to the neighbouring towns and cities including Nijmegen, Oos and ‘s-Hertogenbosch which on this very clear day were all visible.

Having made my way back down from the tower I headed back to the hotel to pick up my luggage and make my way over to the station to catch the trains back to Schiphol. I’d managed to find a route that was valid and didn’t require the use of the rail replacement bus, and it just so happened to be via Nijmegen, Oos and ‘s-Hertogenbosch, with a change in the latter and then again in Utrecht.

The plan didn’t quite work as a cancellation meant there was no point changing at Utrecht, thankfully the NS website kept my updated and showed me a rerouting via Amsterdam Central and a tight, but in the end achieved connection over to Schiphol, arriving with plenty of time to make my flight back to London.