The United States Ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra, will be cycling along the Liberation Route Europe on August 29, along with fellow ambassadors and diplomatic representatives from Belgium, Luxemburg, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Poland, and Germany. This event will draw attention to the enduring freedom of the past 75 years, while also honoring the veterans who fought for that freedom.
By cycling a part of the Liberation Route together, the ambassadors show that freedom is not for granted and requires a joint and continuous effort from all of us. The Ambassadors Cycling Tour 2019 is a unique freedom ride at the start of a year full of commemorations. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra is looking forward to the bike ride. [quote] ……………………………………..
For the Liberation Route Europe Foundation this bike tour has a strong symbolic significance. This is an international shared history, with many stories perspectives. To have a group of international ambassadors follow a part of this remembrance trail, emphasizes the shared history and the importance to reflect and share stories together. It is a meaningful way to commemorate and raise awareness for this important part of history.
Route
During the tour, the Ambassadors and other participants will focus on Operation Market Garden and will get the chance to hear various personal war stories on location. The tour begins in the Province of North-Brabant, at the National Monument Kamp Vught, which is a memorial center and museum on the site of the former Herzogenbusch concentration camp. The group will then travel to the Wings of Liberation Museum in Best, which tells the compelling story of the liberation of the southern part of the Netherlands. The participants will also stop at the Paulushoef farm, whose large white letters served as a guidepost of Operation Market Garden paratroopers. The route then continues to Gelderland, where the route will include the new building of the Freedom Museum in Groesbeek, a village that was the scene of heavy fighting during Operation Market Garden and other operations; it is currently the site of one of Canada’s three War Cemeteries in the Netherlands. The tour will end in Nijmegen, where the cycling ambassadors will visit sites including the river Waal bridge ‘De Oversteek’ (which means ‘Waalcrossing’), where The Sunset March, a daily tribute to the Allied soldiers who fought for the liberation of The Netherlands, still takes place. The ambassadors will commemorate them in a short ceremony.
