Holten

Holten is a very small town about 2 hrs from Amsterdam. After arriving and eating a quick lunch, I ask my waiter how to get to the war cemetery. He describes, in broken English, to just walk north and I will find it “a little way down.” Well, for those of you who know how I give directions “a little way down” is anywhere from 1-30 minutes, and it seems like I'm not the only one. So I just start walking. Just north of Holten is an amazing national park, and so I get some spectacular scenery. That said it takes 25 minutes to even find any sign of the cemetery. So after an hour and a half hike, I end up at the cemetery. And it is beautiful.

In Holland, they celebrate Remembrance Day at the beginning of May every year, and this year was the 65^th anniversary of the end of the war. As such, there was a large ceremony held here at Holten with representatives from many Canadian organization. A local man also told me proudly that Princess Margaret, who was born in Canada, was here and laid the centermost wreath in thanks for everything that Canada had done for her and her people during the war.

One thing that was interesting is that the monument here seems to be the exact same as the monument in Regina. I don’t know if this was a standard design for a memorial at the time, or if these two monuments have a connection somehow and that’s why they are the same. I guess I will be able to tell in another few stops if this is a common monument design.

This was the first stop where I am finding the locations of people from Regina and fell during the war. I brought along a poppy to leave at each of the over 120 grave locations, as well as at each memorial I visit. At the very first memorial of trip, I am kneeling down, putting the poppy next the marker, and I felt like I needed to say something. I had no idea what to say. How can I properly sum up into words how thankful I am for what you did? Well, I looked to the next marker, and there was the inscription “We cannot clasp your hand, your face we cannot see, but let this little token tell that we remember thee”

That was a start. It’s actually quite easy to talk once you begin, but the difficult part is finding the words to begin. And saying this little poem really helps when me to begin.