Travel Journal Also available:    29 September 2022

• Netherlands

This morning there was nothing for me to do at first. I used the opportunity of the morning sun and early fog to take some pictures at the war cemetery. These got even better. Afterwards I went to the information center that belongs to the Ysselsteyn War Cemetery. It was just finished last year and is ultra modern. You can scroll interactively through the history of the Second World War in the Netherlands on large screens. Until then, I had not known that one of the fiercest battles for the liberation of the Netherlands had raged here in the neighboring town of Overloon, where the war museum is located.

Travel Journal Also available:    28 September 2022

• Netherlands

Although it had rained heavily all night, a blue sky was visible through the morning fog. The opportunity was good and so I used the time between breakfast and the start of work to take some photos at the military cemetery. Morning sun shining through the fog always works well.

Travel Journal Also available:    27 September 2022

• Netherlands

Luckily we only worked in the morning today, because heavy rain started from midday. As this was already apparent early in the morning, Rudi and I decided that we wouldn't even start with the grouting, but first of all clean an overflowing gutter in the supply building of the youth meeting center. It turned out that the gutter was full of dead leaves. In addition, it did not have enough slope to let the rainwater run down to the downspout. When the gutter was cleaned, the water ran down the outside of the downpipe. Because the sewer pipes in the ground are probably also clogged, so that the water is standing in the downpipe. Looking around, I noticed that the gutters of the other accommodation bungalows were clogged as well. We therefore extended our cleaning work to all buildings. Everywhere the leaves of the whole year were still in there. Many were already rusted through and nowhere did the water drain properly.

Travel Journal Also available:    27 September 2022

• Netherlands

During this voluntary work assignment at the German war cemetery Ysselsteyn, we participants are not accommodated in a hotel but in the accommodation of the associated youth meeting center. Autumn has also arrived in Holland and the night was a bit colder than I would have liked. In the morning, the work to be done in the coming week was presented: branches and twigs that the storms had carried there are to be cleared away from the cemetery.