Thoughts on a day to Nijmegen, from Utrecht

I'm afraid I can't be of much help. I just spent one night in Nijmegen this summer (Schengen limit strikes again). I chose to do that because the city has some nice Art Nouveau architecture. I primarily just walked around, trying to see as much of the architecture as I could.

There's a smallish, free WWII Infocenter in town which I know I visited, but I went to so many WWII-related museums on this year's trip that I have no specific memory of that one. There's a larger, more important WWII museum outside town, in Groesbeek, that I unfortunately didn't have time to see. From my research notes:

Vrijheidsmuseum (Freedom Museum), Wylerbaan 4: Excellent museum about WWII from beginning to end, emphasizing impacts on Netherlands (occupation, Market Garden, etc). Allow several hours. Bus 5 from Nijmegen Centraal, then 5-min walk. Summer 2025 hours Mon-Sat 1000-1700, Sun 1200-1700. €18.50 (cash not accepted). https://freedommuseum.com/

Also due to lack of time, I didn't get out to the Airbornemuseum Hartenstein when I was in Arnhem. That museum was highly recommended by a local. I mention this in case you haven't previously been in Arnhem.

I enjoyed a meal at Basmati Indiaas Restaurant in Nijmegen.

I love WWII history and the Operation Market Garden as shown in the movie "T he Bridge Too Far."

I did visit the city with the last bridge that was too far. It was in Arnhem. I saw the bridge and visited the British Army Museum that was a bit west of the city.

I didn't visit Nijmegen.

We spent part of a weekend in Nijmegen this past June. We had a full day and 2 partial days in the city itself. We stayed in an AirBnB overlooking the main historic shopping street (Lange Hezelstraat) and near St Stevenskerk. I wanted to do a bike ride along the river (and into Germany), but the weather did not cooperate on the day we had available for that (and the bike rental info I read was out of date / inaccurate). Instead we ended up at the Velorama (bike museum), which was fascinating if a bit niche. (Apparently there’s a big bike factory in the area.) Then went for a ramble in a nature area along the Waal. We also ended up at an interesting little kitchenware museum in Kronenburger Park that is open on weekends. She also sells tea and pastries. My husband spent a good 15-20 minutes talking to the proprietress - she was just very friendly and open. I don’t know that I would recommend anyone prioritize a visit there though, especially not with limited time. What we didn’t visit was St. Stevenskerk, or anything associated with the Roman ruins (in part because there was a music festival that weekend so we couldn’t properly explore that park and timing didn’t work for the museum), but those are probably more traditional highlights than what we did! Enjoyed a meal at Blonde Pater and french fries from the place just below our accommodation.

Arnhem is probably a better base if you want to see Bridge Too Far stuff, although from your initial post it seems maybe you’ve already been there.

Have to admid I never have payed a visit to Nijmegen. It was seriously damaged during WWII and just a few streets and buildings survived it. Being the oldest city in the Netherlands with city rights dating back to the Roman period there is actually not much to see if you just want strolling around. Nevertheless I think you can spend some time there if you include museums about it’s interesting past, like the Valkhof Museum.

https://en.visitnijmegen.com/overview/museums

Lately I have watched a very interesting WWII docmentary about the period between the outbreak in Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. It gives an overview how the front moved, together with the strategic positions and decisions made from both sides. So it includes Operation Market Garden (A Bridge too Far), but put it more into perspective. The Battle of the Bulge is not shown but the documentary gives more insight about the reason of it. The focus is not on these two battles, but more the situation around it and give to my opinion a good idea about what happened during autumn '44.

It’s named “Het Grote Offensief”, very well made but till now only available in Dutch. Hopefully soon in English, likely named The Great Offensive. So if a documentary shows up with this name or similar it's certainly worth watching for those interested in history.