Day 4

Good evening everyone...wow what a day.....are you ready for this?? Well today was expected to be of our big days and it certainly was. AS I mentioned earlier today the Bruins won last night so that offset the 2-2.5 hours sleep I got last night, plus on a more personal note we are heading to a country that I have never been to before and I am very excited about that. However, before we head to the Netherlands we are heading to the medieval city of Brugges, Belgium.



Although the link I have provided you with is not ours, it still gives a great sense of what this city is all about and for the most part we hit almost everyone of those sites in a short period of time and the girls even had a hour to shop. More on the shopping later! By the way if you watch the entirety of the video you obviously need to check out the architecture of the city, truly breathtaking and also pay special attention to about the 8:36-8:40 mark and you will see a sculpture in a church and that sculpture is of the Virgin Mary and the babe and is one of the few sculptures of Buonarroti outside of Italy. Amazing eh!!!

I truly hope none of you said “Who the %^LL is Buonarroti?”....just being a smart ass again. The sculpter is probably better known to you as Michelangelo, and no not the Ninja Turtle!!! The piece was really neat to see!!!

Tour complete of Brugges and now their first bit of free time, only 1 hour but hey it is better than nothing (although I did mention this was not a shopping trip, a few of the ladies don’t recall that being mentioned!!!) So when everything starts to shake down and kids are pairing up with teachers...how the H E Double Hockey Sticks do I get stuck with 4 women whose sole desire is to do as much shoe shopping in an hour that would make some chick from “The Hills” blush!!! Anyways, Rachel, Emily, Ashley, Shannon and I are off to find some shoes...how exciting!!! Ah heck let’s just make the best of it and of course set some ground rules early!!! Rule #1 No underwear stores for this cat.....Rule #2 only 1 pair of shoes per girl per store...Rule #3 10 minute time limit in each store...Rule #4 Chiz is the boss and this is not a democracy....

For the most part everything worked out well and all of the rules were followed and only Emily and Rachel walked away with any items..well unless you count Emily and Shannon’s 15th chocolate covered Belgian waffle in the last 24 hours!!! And I thought I could eat...wow!!!!

From Brugges it is about a 3 hour drive to Groesbeek which was the location of the silent march to the CWG Cemetery at Groesbeek. However, before all of that happened the kids were treated to a lot of fun and information at the Groesbeek Liberation Museum 1944-45. It was here the kids were able to interact with some Dutch people who were alive during the occupation. One of which in particular Martiin Dekkurs spoke with the kids about what it was like to be held captive in your own country. He furthered hammered home the message about not forgetting these individuals(Canadians) because of what they did...they could have stayed in the country(Canada) and lived their own lives, instead they gave their lives to liberate the Netherlands from the Nazi occupation and this is why the people will be forever grateful. A few tears were shed from time to time. The kids also got to sing karaoke..ya go figure! Well there was a 77 year old Dutch man singing period tunes and after some of our kids began to chat with him, the next thing Marilyn and I noticed, he was off the stage singing to them. It moved from that to Sam Mundy singing with him on stage and then all of a sudden about 15 of them were on stage singing a song they used to sing about “Beautiful Canada.” They were having a ball and go figure they were the life of the party amongst about 300 other kids at that point.



From there we walked to a dinner hall to have a great dinner of pasta (not bland French pasta...but something delicious) that was prepared by the local people of Wageningen. Yep they fed and served over 2500 people, don’t get me wrong, I am sure it was catered but the people were there to help serve, so it was fun to meet some more of the Dutch.

Following supper we assembled in the town square to get ready for the 45 minute Silent March of Remembrance back to the cemetery at Groesbeek. Picture it, about 2500 people plus townspeople marching silently through the beautiful valleys for approximately 45 minutes...wow!!! The kids were awesome!!! As we reached the cemetery every student and/or adult Canadian stood in front of a Canadian soldier throughout the entire ceremony. I did mention it was a beautiful sunny day but with a cool north wind...and it got even cooler! But the kids stood straight and listened to the Dutch and English speeches of what took place so many years ago, and it was very cool in both senses of the word. But the cooler it got the more impressed I was with the students, no complaints at all. They were getting it...this was nothing compared to what the 23 year old lying buried in front of me went through 65 years ago...not even close!!! When the ceremony finally ended each one of us lit a candle and left it at the base of each headstone along with our island clay inuksuk.....a fitting gift for worthy recipients!

Well another emotional day is in the books and we finally made it back to the hotel we are staying at for the duration of the stay in Wageningen, which is a blessing because tomorrow’s May celebrations are right down from the hotel and there are only 4 of the 58 busses within walking distance!!! No bussing tomorrow...also in the AM the kids will get to sleep in a little longer as we don’t need to be at our Symposium until 9:45 and it is actually in our hotel. Then it is onto the celebrations and I think the kids are going to really appreciate an upbeat day as opposed to the more downtrodden days of remembrance.

I am going to sign off and I feel I was a little boring today but it could be due to the fact that I am going on 3 hours sleep..but the Bruins did win so who cares...oh yeah just remembered we finally got through our first completed count off today without delay....our number 32 Bradley even shouted his number out for the first time!!! We are going to try it backwards next...we will be in Charlottetown before we figure that out!!! Hope all is well at home and I am heading to bed...I have two interviews in the AM and I need my beauty sleep..ah heck they are radio interviews so who cares...in the AM Brendan, Sarah and I are doing a Dutch radio show and then I think I need to do another one at 11:00 my time with CBC Radio’s Island Morning...supposedly they have been reading the blog..if I find out who gave it to them..they are in big trouble!! Take Care!!!
DC(Dutch Chizzy)

PS No pics until AM I am beat!!!