The Bridgewater College women's soccer is currently on a foreign tour across Europe with stops in France, Belgium and England prior to the start of the fall 2022 campaign. Rising junior Maren Dougherty will be documenting the experience through a series of blogs for bridgewatereagles.com

By Maren Dougherty

We started off the morning getting back on the bus to head to our history heavy day! We started the day with the D-Day memorial museum in Caen, France. We spent a few hours strolling through the museum, reading, and learning more about the war and D-Day. Next, we met our tour guide to learn all about the battles at Normandy Beaches. She brought us first to a point 100 feet above the ocean where we saw remains of Axis bunkers and a cliff with an 80% incline that the Allies were expected to climb up in 7 minutes. One of the most interesting things about this stop was that the landscape was littered with craters. These came from Allies bombing the land, so that the Axis soldiers had a more difficult landscape to deal with when Allies attacked.
 
Next, we drove down to the shore to see the beach. It was an extremely long, flat beach, and seeing it in person gave us a good idea of what American soldiers went through to storm the open beach. After walking on the beach and dipping our toes in the water, we headed to the Normandy American Cemetery where 9,386 of our military lay to rest. These soldiers have a beautiful resting site on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean and beach with a large chapel in the center and memorial Walls of the Missing (1,557 names). At the cemetery, we witnessed the lowering of the flag and the playing of Taps to honor the dead. It was a powerful, moving moment to end the day of touring.
 
Following the Cemetery, we headed off to dinner to enjoy some more delicious food. After dinner, with the daylight we had left, we all met on the field next to our hotel to play a fun juggling game that we all love. We had so much fun with music, laughs, and lots of energy all while getting some touches on the ball!!
 
The next day, we got on the bus early in the morning to leave France for our next stop, Brugges, Belgium! The bus ride was long, about 7 hours, but it allowed us some time to rest and sleep. At one of the rest stops, we even got out to do our dynamic warm-up to loosen up our legs a bit. When we got to the hotel in Brugges, we had a short amount of time to get ready before our game that night. We traveled to the field where we played a Belgian club team. We saw a lot of improvement from the first game, and even more improvement in the second half. It is nice to know that these games are helping us get our rhythm back to prepare us for the upcoming season!
 
After the game, we were able to talk to the opposing team over some pizza! We asked many questions and were able to get a good sense of their lives in Belgium - so different, yet so similar to ours! At some point, one of the players brought out a speaker and we shared a few songs and dances. We taught them one of our favorite team dances, The Cupid Shuffle, and they shared a Belgian dance with us. I never thought that I would be seen dancing with the opposing team after a game, but it was an experience none of us will ever forget! Soccer truly is a universal language. 
 
This morning, we woke up and all met outside the hotel to meet our tour guide for the day. He brought us on a walking tour through the city of Brugge, a medieval town with history everywhere! We saw some beautiful streets and sights on the tour, but I think the most beautiful sight was that of waffle shops and chocolate shops at almost every other store front! After the tour, we had a fabulous three course meal where we tried some new, local delicacies. Many of the team tried beef carpaccio, a dish with thinly sliced raw beef served with some greens, balsamic, and a sprinkle of cheese. Many of us are making it a point to expand our palate on this trip!
 
After lunch, we had some time to shop around Brugges before heading to the field for practice. It was a hot practice on the turf, but nonetheless, we put the work in to get better. After finishing practice with 3 "88s" (our favorite running), we made our way back into town and all split up to eat dinner, explore, and shop a bit more. Many of the girls tried famous Belgian waffles and chocolate to finish off the evening.
 
We travel to London tomorrow on the Chunnel where we will be in the world's longest undersea tunnel for about 13 minutes on train!