More than 300 war brides will board a VIA Rail train in Montreal today, bound for Halifax, where they will commemorate the journey that brought them to Canada after the Second World War.

During and after the war, more than 50,000 women made the journey from Europe to Canada after marrying Canadian soldiers, also bringing 22,000 children. Their gateway into the country was Halifax's Pier 21.

Doreen Robinson arrived in Canada from England in 1947, and vividly remembers first setting eyes on the city.

"When we came into Halifax harbour, everything was all lit up, and it was just like Christmas all over again," she told CTV Atlantic. "It was just wonderful."

This week, the war brides will revisit Pier 21, and over the next few days 18 couples will renew their wedding vows.

The idea came from the same VIA Rail employees who organized a trip by a trainload of veterans from Halifax to Ottawa last year to mark the Year of the Veteran.

Several provinces have named 2006 the Year of the War Bride.

Joan and Oliver Hie, who were married 60 years ago on the 11th of March, will renew their vows in Halifax on Wednesday. The pair, who live in Kitchener, Ont. met while Oliver was in Holland serving with the Canadian military.

"I was taking a walk with my girlfriends after supper, a beautiful day," Joan Hie recalled in an interview with CTV's Canada AM.

"And we had seen these soldiers walking the other way, and so we stopped and started talking, you know? And then they asked us where we were going. We had to go home. So they came home with us and then they asked if they could come back the following night. And that's how it started."

When asked if it was love at first sight, Oliver Hie replied: "No. Not really."

"We didn't have time."

Many of these women left everything familiar behind as they came to cities and rural communities across Canada. Some later returned to their homelands, but most of them adapted and many have shared stories of how they grew to love Canada, despite the initial hardships.

(Read their stories here.)

Joan Hie said life in Canada was difficult at first, but it helped that she studied a bit of English in high school.

"I wasn't totally lost. But it's an ocean of difference between Europe and here in Canada," she told Canada AM. "You have to get used to it, and you do. You have to."

Hie's journey to Canada began on a Red Cross ship that took her from Holland to the Port of Tilbury.

"They put us up in London for one night. And then the following day, they took us to where a ship was waiting for us. It took four days and landed in Halifax."

The trip to Halifax's Pier 21 this week will be the first time many of the war brides have been back since the war.

The VIA train was scheduled to leave Montreal early this evening and arrive in Halifax on Tuesday.

On board, a ladies barbershop quartet will make up part of the World War II-era musical entertainment for the journey. In Halifax, the women will be greeted by the Stadacona Band of Maritime Forces Atlantic, one of six regular force military bands serving the Canadian Forces.

On Wednesday, Pier 21 will host a celebration for the war brides that will include the renewal of vows ceremony, in which organizers will wear period clothing.

The war brides will walk under crossed swords to meet the veterans up at the front of Heritage Hall at Pier 21, as the band plays "Here Comes the Bride."

For the return trip on Thursday, Nov. 9, VIA Rail is bringing back last year's Remembrance Day train to Ottawa. While most passengers will get off in Montreal, about 100 will continue on to Ottawa for Remembrance Day ceremonies.