Go double Dutch on Lower Rhine trip

10:51am Thursday 5th June 2008

MARK EDWARDS gets the best of two countries in a short break to the Lower Rhine which is steeped in history.

MY short break in the Lower Rhine offered, in the words of the German and Dutch tourist boards, "two countries in one".

In three days we travelled from Arnhem and Nijmegen in the Netherlands to Kempen and Krefeld in Germany's Niederrhein.

Here the two countries are united in their landscapes of forests, wind turbines and picturesque towns and villages.

The region also shares a desire to remember and retain its history, whether it be recent or ancient, good memories or bad.

We flew with Ryanair on the 60-minute flight to Dusseldorf Weeze airport, which is the gateway to the Lower Rhine, if not Rhine 'capital' Dusseldorf, which is still an hour's drive away after you have landed, despite the airport's name.

A team of amateur footballers were also on the flight to play a series of games against German sides. Nervous flyers such as I could have done without their staged screams of panic as we came into our, as it turned out, immaculate landing.

Our first stop was the Openluchtmuseum or open air museum on the outskirts of Arnhem after a drive over the border into the Netherlands.

Here are historic homes, some dating back as far as the 15th Century, as well as windmills, farmhouses and fishing boats, many of which have been taken apart at their original site, transported and reassembled on the museum's 110 acres of grounds.

The museum, which was set up in 1912, intends to preserve the country's heritage. Travelling by reconstructed trams phased out in Arnhem after the war, you can drop in on the work of artisans such as papermakers, printers, millers, blacksmiths and laundry captains, all working to traditional methods.

This year, the museum's theme is courtship through the years and visitors get to learn the rituals and habits connected to relationships over the years. Apparently, in the eastern provinces of the Netherlands a male suitor would go to the house of the girl of his dreams in his best suit. If he was welcomed in by the girl with a hot bacon pancake then the feelings were mutual. Met with some coffee and bread, the young man had got dressed up for nothing and stood little chance of being undressed.

Soon after learning this fact, I was served a steaming bacon pancake in one of the museum's excellent cafes and I'd just turned up in T-shirt and flip-flops. How times have changed.

However, the waitress then went on to serve a lot of other people and I had to console myself with the fact the gigantic pancake was delicious even when eaten with the traditional Dutch accompaniment of maple syrup.

Next stop was the city of Arnhem where I dropped my bags at the Best Western Hotel Haarhuis. It was only a minute's walk from here to the heart of city with its squares of inviting-looking cafes and bars and pedestrian-only parades of shops. The Arnhem Academy of Art is one of country's most renowned fashion and art colleges so the city is a great place to hunt for designer gear at affordable prices.

However, that was not the focus of this trip and I had a guide to show me the traces of history in a city which was almost completely razed to the ground in 1944 during the Second World War.

She took me to Eusebius Church where I got an excellent view over the second-largest city in the Gelderland province. The church, which is named after the fourth-century saint Eusebius, Bishop of Vercelli, contains a glass elevator which whooshes you up 93 m to the top of the spire where the city sprawls out below you.

It's a great vantage point for observing the John Frost Bridge, the third identical incarnation of the twice blown-up bridge, named after the commander of the paratroopers who fought in vain to secure it during Operation Market Garden's attempt to bring an end to the Second World War in 1944.

Two battles of Arnhem during the war laid waste to the city, including the 15th-century church. It was rebuilt between 1946 and 1961.

The human cost of the battles is emphasised the following morning in a visit to the National Liberation Museum, built on fields just outside Arnhem where paratroopers came in to land.

The fascinating museum recreates life in war and after liberation with crackled reports from Radio Orange relaying news of rescue from London, to recreated air-raid shelters and bird's-eye-view models of Operation Market Garden. The knowledgeable and passionate - they have to be, they don't get paid a penny for their work - guides will even take you out by bus or bicycle and give you a tour of the surrounding battlefields and monuments to those who lost their lives.

We return to Germany by an unconventional mode of transport: the bogie. I have vague memories of hapless men trying to outrun steam trains by frantically see-sawing the lever on these contraptions in old black and white comedies. This service, however, was far more relaxed.

The Grenzland Draisine is the first public bogie ride service in the Netherlands. The company has taken over unused train track that runs a couple of miles over the German border to stop in Kranenburg.

There's only one track so travel is split into shifts: two hours for bogies going towards Germany, then two hours going back, and so on. These bogies are, rather disappointingly, pedal-powered. The larger can fit 12 people on, with eight sunning themselves on the deck while four pedal away at the rear.

It's great fun, but as one of the pedallers it was great to see the Cafehaus Niederrhein at the old train station at Kranenburg come into view signalling the end of our exertions.

Unlike any rural train station eatery I have ever known, this cafe serves tasty organic food to die for. There are also tables under awning on the platform where you can get a good view of others' bogie technique.

From Kranenburg it was an hour's drive to the medieval city of Kempen. A wonderfully verdant place, it is surrounded by woods and has gorgeous hedge-lined streets circling the old town, which is a delight of cobbled streets and Hansel-and-Gretel-like homes.

I stay at the Hotel Papillon, a family-run boutique hotel minutes away from the centre. It's a friendly place, with spacious, themed rooms and an excellent restaurant. You can have your meals served to you in its courtyard in fine weather.

Travelling into the centre for the evening, you would be let down if you were after nightclubs, but there are plenty of lively bars with tables spilling out onto car-less cobbled squares. Our group also found a cocktail bar that was happy to cater for us into the early hours.

Having given up alcohol after a New Year's party hangover which seemed to last into February, I was rechristened Shirley for the evening owing to my ordering of soft drink coktail the Shirley Temple.

The next morning, however, I was glad of a clear head with an early start to visit the renowned medieval festival the Flax Market in Krefeld. It is the largest medieval market in Europe and runs over the weekend of May 10 to May 12 each year. Traditional artisans from all over the world set up stalls in the surrounds of the towns's impressive castle.

Impressively moustached men were making some sinus-clearing mustard, there were demostrations of weaving and glass blowing, plenty of marvellous music and even some jousting. This is how medieval festivals should be done.

We were to look even further back in time on our next stop. The city of Xanten stands on the remains of a London fort. Take the little train - the misleadingly titled Nibelungen Express, you could walk alongside it if you wanted - and you can visit the neighbouring Archaelogical Park Xanten where a Roman town has been landscaped according to information garnered from excavations below.

Discoveries of the Roman foundations have been enough for archaelogists to recreate the structures. Chief among these is a Roman temple which dominates the skyline as you approach the city. There is also a rebuilt Roman baths complete with underfloor hot water heating.

For the last night of the trip, I stay at the Hotel Haus Duden in Wesel. It's an attractive stucco-fronted chateau with manicured gardens and a more modern block for hotel accomodation at the rear.

The wonderful weather had stayed with us and we enjoyed a superb dinner served to us in the garden. Surely, it wasn't time to go home after such an idyllic few days. Unfortunately, it was, and don't call me Shirley.

Lower Rhine short break links

Mark Edwards took this short break through the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions He flew with Ryanair from London Stanstead to Dusseldorf Weeze. Flights from £10. Book here

Hotels: Best Western Hotel Naarhuis

Hotel Papillon

Hotel Haus Duden

Visits Dutch Open Air Museum

Guided tour Arnhem

National Liberation Museum 1944-45

Grenzland Draisine

Cafehaus Niederrhein

Kempen tour

Krefeld Flax Market

Nibelungen Express Xanten

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