We spent the last few days in The Netherlands as recently it was my father's-in-law as well as my sister's-in-law birthdays, and we were supposed to celebrate altogether. In the end, there was no celebration as everyone except of me and my husband was sick. On Saturday morning, instead of sitting at home and watching TV we spontaneously decided to go to Arnhem. Well, I decided and my husband was not too thrilled about it, but I convinced him by suggesting that we could invite his aunt and cousin who live there to join us for lunch. Little did I know at that time that they were sick too! We didn't have any plan and we ended up alone, but it still turned out to be a great day!
I have never been to the old town of Arnhem, so I was excited to explore it. It took us about an hour to get there and when we parked our car I was again reminded that parking in The Netherlands is more expensive than in Zurich!
We started our walk at Kerkplein which is dominated by The Eusebius Church. When we saw the glass balcony high above us we couldn't resist entering the church.
To be honest, I didn't find Arnhem as charming as other Dutch cities. There were many new buildings mixed with the old ones, so it looked like a patchwork to me. I prefer when the old town is kept as it used to be, but I also understand the need for renovation and modernization. And it was clean! When I told my husband what I thought what do you think he did? He said: Well, I told you so 😊
There is a cute square in front of the church with restaurants, outdoor benches and tables and ever present bicycles. I was surprised that there were not so many people in the city as Saturdays are usually packed, and you have to watch out not to get hit by a bike.
As soon as we entered The Eusebius Church we realized that it's not an active church. This could be fun!
Let's go inside!
The entrance to the church is free, but it costs 16 EUR per person when you want to visit the archeological excavations and the tower. You will also get an audio guide which is fairly simple to handle. You have to point it to designated spots to start the tour, and then enjoy. The information that I will share here is from our audio guide tour.
The Eusebius Church is the oldest church in Arnhem. It stands in a place of a Romanesque church which was built in the 9th century. Arnhem as well as the church were heavily impacted and left in ruins during the World War II. And suddenly, all those new buildings made sense. The audio guide will take you through this horrific part of the history.
Towards the end of the war, the church was heavily damaged and most of it was burned down. During continuous bombing, the tower collapsed and fell inside of the church. It was a great tragedy, but luckily, the restoration work started right after the war and the tower was rebuilt.
Today, the church hosts a permanent exhibition The Glory of Gelre which will take you through the 15th and 16th century when Arnhem had an important role in Europe.
The original organ from the 18th century was destroyed during the bombing. It's interesting that the new organ actually comes from the same period. It was installed after the war when it was donated to the Eusebius Church by another church that was closed down.
Not that the religious or historical value of this place wasn't important, but look at the lights! They don't fit in the church, but at the same time they fit in the church perfectly, if you know what I mean 😊
The nave and the aisles are of impressive size, and the large windows let a lot of light inside which makes the church look even bigger.
The church bells are more than 500 years old! The biggest one was gifted to the church by Charles II, Duke of Guelders in 1503. You might wonder why they are not in the tower, but lie on the floor. They were brought crashing down when the tower collapsed.
And exactly in this spot I almost broke my neck!
Until the beginning of the 19th century, important people of the city were buried in the church. Being important was actually not enough, as you had to have a lot of money to afford to pay for a grave inside of the church.
I'm used to such graves as this is not the only church where I saw them, but this is the first grave which is so textured that I stumbled upon it. My funny husband couldn't not comment and told me that in the worst case scenario they could have put me there too!
The centerpiece of the nave is the grave monument of Charles II who was the most powerful duke of Gelderland.
I think one of the most precious items in the church is the armor which Charles II wore in the 15th century! It's place high above our heads.
As any other medieval church, the Eusebius church was adorned with colorful paintings. This is the only original mural that has survived until today.
Let's go to the second part of the church: The vault!
A short metal staircase led us to the archaeological excavation site where we could see the original walls of the church from the 9th century as well as artifacts found during the restoration work.
These pieces of the construction were found during the work. Most of them were found after the tower collapsed, but some of them were simply removed during the reconstruction as they were worn out. They won't be placed into their original position, but they are too precious to be thrown away.
As I mentioned previously, the rich and important people were buried in the church and their skeletons are still there.
The city made good money from selling graves inside of the church, but the space was limited, and therefore when there was no family left to pay for the grave the bones ended up in a bone pit together.
This place gives me chills, so let's go to the tower!
The Eusebius church is the only church in Europe with a lift in the tower! Lift
First you will get to the 7th floor which is 90 meters above the ground, then you go one floor down to the glass balconies, and the last stop is on the 1st floor where you will watch a movie about a war battle in Arnhem. I have no idea what is on the 2nd to the 5th floor and I was so nervous that I didn't ask.
The lift has a capacity of 8 people and you can look outside because of its glass walls. This didn't help much with my fear of heights and slight claustrophobia I must say. And it was so fast! We were at the top in no time!
I was glad that it was not a balcony, but a closed room with windows around it. We enjoyed 360 degrees views of Arnhem.
Each window had a model if the most important building/activity in that direction.
This is the same Rhine that we have in Switzerland, just much bigger and dirtier 😊
The city that we see today is much different to the city from before the war. Large parts of Arnhem were damaged or destroyed...
After the tower collapsed, many residents felt that it should be rebuilt just as it was, however the council had another idea and held a design competition. There were four submissions, three of them we can see here.
And the winner!
A proof that I really made it all the way up 😊
Afterwards we waited for ages for the lift to go to the 6th floor. It was literally just a couple of meters down, but you need to take the lift for the safety reasons. When we got there I got somehow frozen as it was an open space, and there was so much wind! Also, we needed to walk a few floors down to the glass balconies which was terrifying.
We were on the platform 80 meters above the ground, surrounded by a safety net...
We walked around the floor, but I couldn't make myself walk down to the balconies because I really didn't feel comfortable there. I had to leave as soon as possible before I started to panic. My husband was not interested in the glass balconies at all, so he agreed to go down. I convinced myself that the photos wouldn't be good anyway as the glass was greenish, so it was not worth it.
We waited for the lift for what fell like an eternity, but we had a nice view 😊
I calmed myself down a bit on the way to the 1st floor, but I promised myself to do a proper research before I do something like that again.
We entered a dark room with a projector. We pressed a button to start the story about The Battle of Arnhem which resulted in destroying the church as well as the city. There were stories from soldiers as well as civilians who were hiding in the basements listening to explosions.
Before we left, we went to the city shop which is located in the church too. As you know I like to look up, and that's when I noticed the human-like figures hanging there.
After the excursion we were hungry, so we walked through the city to the restaurant. I loved the design of some of its buildings.
It didn't take us long to get to Konijnenvoer which literally translates to the rabbit food. It's a vegan restaurant (if you didn't get it from the name) and we couldn't wait to enjoy our meal.
We were welcomed by chic and cozy ambience. It's such a pretty place!
And we were lucky to get a table at the window, so we enjoyed the views too.
Yes, I had to get a detail of those flowers 😊
And the food... in two words: SUPER DELICIOUS! I could eat like that everyday. I had a seasonal soup with Korean chili paste Gochujang and truffle arancini. And my husband had local bitterballen and pasta with ragout.
We were gone almost all day, so we had to go back to check on our patients. They were all in bed and didn't need anything, so we went to the cinema in the evening. It was not a bad day at all!
Thank you for reading!
Cheers,
Martina
Epic post! I enjoyed the tour. Inspired a little google time on Charles II and the battle of Arnhem. I was hoping we didn't bomb Arnhem but turns out it was us and the Brits. In the pursuit of winning the war but still very sad.
Nice to see they got their money's worth haha bones still there even if suspended in the air now.
This kind of freaked me out. Looked like they were falling.
Food did look great. I even googled some of those dishes 🙂
It's great to hear that it inspired you to learn something new 😊 I didn't want to go too much into the detail, but yeah it was the Allies who bombed it, however as you say it helped to end the war...
That was soooo creepy! I didn't expect to see that 😂
I was just surprised to see them. I think it is referring to the parachuters from the war..
And now you need to cook them at home 😉
I'm already used to the beauty of your posts, you know when I go through them it's like I have a guide next to me who talks to me about every object or place, and from what I've seen the old city of Arnhem is spectacular.
But those dishes look really good too and I'm sure they were tasty.
Thank you for the compliment 😘
Oh, the food was surprisingly delicious. We usually don't eat out in The Netherlands as it's disappointing, but this restaurant was great.
Sending lots of hugs! Have a lovely afternoon!
You're welcome.
You know, when we decide to eat at a restaurant we try beforehand to read at least some of the reviews but there are occasions when we actually choose a restaurant at random.
I have to admit that I've had some bad experiences at very famous restaurants.
Hugs from picturesque Romania!
Wishing you a wonderful weekend (I'll be gone until Tuesday and won't have access to my laptop).
Bicycles 😁
So I was there lol
Oh, a shame for the destroyed organ but it is great that it was replaced with one from the same period. The hanging human figures - that is interesting. And the food, wow, it looks amazing 😃
Oh, you see, I made a mental note to tag you and say something about that, but I forgot!!!! Lesson learned - put mental notes on a piece of paper 😂
Of course, you picked up on that organ 😉
Have a lovely afternoon, my dear friend! 🤗
A fantastic place, a complete report, nourished with excellent facts and photography of high quality... A round of applause for you and this fascinating article @delishtreats friend!... THANKS!
!discovery 40
!VSC
!PIZZA
!BBH
Thank you! You make me blush! 😊😉
Have a lovely day! 🤗
@delishtreats! Your Content Is Awesome so I just sent 1 $BBH (Bitcoin Backed Hive) to your account on behalf of @jlinaresp. (5/5)
Martina, what an interesting walk. I was delighted with every discovery along the way, except for the stumble on the tomb. 😅 your husband's joke was good, black humour that was appropriate at the time (lol) and although what you saw afterwards was creepier, it's still great, because it connects and sensitizes you to the history of the place.
The views... breathtaking. There I imagine he realised that getting there was worth it.
Hey, and you photographed a bird on the wing in that square. Nice shot. Congratulations.
😜
PS. I hope you are all better or fully recovered from your sickness.
My husband can be very funny 😂
You noticed the bird!!! YAY! 😍
They feel better now, although not healthy yet. With my husband we were not sick.. thank you for asking!
Have a lovely day!
I am glad to hear they are doing better.
Laughter and good humour are very healing things. Always laughing.
A huge hug.
This might be one of the tallest ceilings I've seen. Or maybe it was the unique design playing tricks on me. The archaeological site had a lot of interesting looking pieces, but the pile of bones was creepy. The view from the top was really nice. It is a bit funny that it looks not as high based from the surroundings, but maybe it's because some of the buildings are tall as well. The food looks delicious, especially those meatball looking things.
No, no, it was VERY tall! I see that everyone (including me) thinks it's creepy. I don't know why they showcase them..
When you're on top, it feels very high. I was really uncomfortable..
YEAH! It was delicious! I will try making them at home too 😊
Impressive architectural designs and stone art. It was so good to see places like this. Yes, I agree with you old architecture was mixed up with new buildings, and its good to see also that old ones were just kept and preserved. But still, the place is so beautiful!
Thank you! I'm glad that you liked my post.
Have a lovely day!😊
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I think you guys might be banned from visiting your on laws in future, making everyone sick 🙃
Are those real skeleton and bones in the bone pit? That's really gruesome 😵💫
No, no, they were sick, luckily, we stayed healthy...
Yeah, these are real bones and it was soooo creepy! I wouldn't like if my bones would be showcased liked this, but well, who cares.. 😂
What a beautiful church but not only that, I was fascinated by that part of the excavations, I felt like I could be there and visualise it all.
The views of the city from that height are beautiful.
A very nice tour, thank you very much @delishtreats ❤️
That's easy when you can travel like this 😘
Thank you for your kind comment and have a lovely afternoon!
Thank you very much to you, I enjoy the mental journeys I make through your publications, they are great!
Sorry that you people could not celebrate their birthdays. I’m glad they are feeling okay now
This building is really huge and tall
Nice one!
At least they are better now.. we can celebrate another time too 😊
Thank you for stopping by!
A fabulous post and very well presented.
!PIZZA
Thank you, my dear friend! 😊
Only a pleasure and thank you also for your kind support on my posts.
!PIZZA and !LUV
It's a beautiful church. But what caught my attention were those graves and skeletons — such curious things to see.
Curious and creepy 😉
Thank you for stopping by!
In front of the square there are lots of bicycles, maybe a bicycle parking area. and what scared me was a hole full of human skeletons. it's very horror.
There are bicycles parked at the most random places in The Netherlands 😊 It doesn't necessary need to be a slot dedicated for them..
Yeah, that was creepy and scary!
Thank you for stopping by!
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That model idea near the windows is pretty cool, never seen that before!
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