The cold of summer, through the heart, through the lungs, through the space of thought. With my daughter, with my grandson, I went back to Arnhem, ready to spend the day there.
Arnhem was the birthplace of the little ones, where they left their swaddled cries, and they lived in that city for three years and moved their homes three times, and during that time, I knew Arnhem, I liked Arnhem, I loved the mountains and waters, the trees and trees, the street bridges, and even the insect sounds coming from the wildflowers on the banks of the Rhine, and the bells of bicycles, as familiar as my own breath. The little guy actually loves to listen, and he becomes quieter. In order to put him to sleep, I pushed his stroller and walked back and forth.
As we walked through the streets we had walked before, the bridges we had crossed, past the Eusebius Church and the ancient buildings, past the doors of the homes where we had lived, the playgrounds we had played, he was not impressed, after all, it was too small, and when we went to the Japanese restaurants that were often eaten in the city center, he said he remembered, and the excitement seemed to really remember.
Nearly four years old, just like before, his table was personable enough to sit for two hours.
Since my daughter's family left Arnhem, I have taken fewer trains and the roads to the city have hardly been taken. It seems that people go to the city empty, leaving only thoughts. We were from the south, and it took us three quarters of an hour to drive to Arnhem without traffic jams, but unfortunately there were often traffic jams. Arnhem is the capital of the Dutch province of Gelderland, is a railway transportation hub city, by international train, from Arnhem, to the east is Germany, there are European railway trains can go directly to Duisburg, Germany; to the south can go to Eindhoven, to the west can go to Rotterdam, north can go to Groningen, Leeuwarden and other places in the Netherlands. Arnhem as the second largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam,
Located in the lower reaches of the Rhine, the city is crossed by the Usser River, a tributary of the Rhine River, because of the confluence of the Rhine and The Usser Rivers, the entire city of Arnhem is divided into two parts by the Rhine River, Henan is a new district, and Hebei is dominated by the old city. The three bridges across the Rhine run from north to south, connecting the two parts into one. The World War II film "The Distant Bridge" took place in one of the three bridges, and the famous war was also known as the "Battle of Arnhem", which was part of the "Operation Market Garden", in which the British and Polish airborne troops were never able to seize the "Arnhem Bridge" controlled by Nazi Germany, and finally Nazi Germany won a decisive victory in the battle, and the British airborne troops suffered a lot of losses and retreated. My daughter's home at that time, all near the bridge, was quiet in the new city, and lively in the old city.
Arnhem was a city since 1233 and has a history of 800 years.
Further north from the old town, there is vast woodland, mansions and a fresh and elegant environment, where there is the Van Gogh National Forest Park, the largest nature reserve in the Netherlands. In addition, there are many large public green parks and zoos, and birds and animals come and go uninvited, as if it were a paradise. The scene of the little guy feeding the swans and biting his finger and crying always came to my eyes.
The Rhine is almost parallel to the old town, running east-west, and the sunrise over the Arnhem Bridge can be seen in the morning and the sunset over the Rhine in the evening. In those years, we also had the opportunity to sit along the river, in the open-air bar and restaurant by the river, and to enjoy a delicious coffee or beer in the afterglow of the setting sun, waiting for the sunset. A bridge and a river fill the city with endless charm.
After a few years of not seeing, Arnhem's scenery is still beautiful, people and nature are still harmonious, the city is still bustling, but the traffic is a little more crowded, but it is still a nostalgic place, the daughter said, if you return to the Netherlands from Sweden in the future, Arnhem, can still be used as a settlement capital. That kind of affection, suddenly makes people fall into contemplation, into intoxication.