Where do I begin? Day 9 of the 2015 Canadian Battlefield Tour and we have already done and seen so much. Today was our first full day in the beautiful country of Belgium. After arriving in Bruges the previous evening, we enjoyed a much needed sleep in before beginning our day. We began our day by visiting a memorial dedicated to the 52 Canadians killed during the fighting at Moerbrugge. We then continued on to Moerkerke where Paige presented on the Canadian Algonquin regiment and the story of their attempt to cross the duel canals. Under the cover of darkness these men were commissioned with creating a bridge head for the engineers to form a crossing for the armoured divisions. We then continued on to the a private museum owned by one of the most interesting gentlemen I have ever met, Gilbert Van Landschoot. As a young boy Mr. Van Landshoot’s father aided the Allies. His fathers stories became his motivation to open the Canada Poland Museum, that is dedicated to the Canadian and Polish troops involvement in the liberation of the Belgium people. Although the museum consisted of an amazing collection of Second World War uniforms, weapons and badges, among other things the best part of our visit was when Mr. Van Landschoots daughter presented us with Chocolate. She described that one thing the Belgium people always remembered about the Canadians was them giving chocolate to the citizens, so in return she would gladly do the same. Next on our stop was to visit a German bunker along the Leopold canal, where Sebastian discussed the tactics behind Operation Switchback. To end our day we visited Adegen cemetery to pay our respects to those Second World War soldiers.

With each day we see and learn new things, but I will leave those stories to my fellow travellers.

Deanna