Guides Get Away to Switzerland
14 coaches, 600 Guides and 100 Leaders, all off to
Switzerland.
Subscribe to their blog to keep up with the group on their
'mountain-top moments'.
Friday 19 February 2010
The snow started to fall as we began our final day in the
Bernese Oberland on our Great Guide Getaway to Switzerland.
The adult Adventure trip visited Our Chalet today – they had a
great day exploring the World Centre and their visit made this
event the biggest ever hosted by a WAGGGS World Centre; what an
achievement!
Meanwhile, groups of Guides and their Leaders from the other
five venues continued their tour of the sights of the region;
visiting the Jungfraujoch, enjoying a day of snow-shoeing and
building igloos, as well as skating in Interlaken and
getting a chance to explore their Swiss villages.
However, the best bit of the trip was surely still to come – the
magical Finale celebration to mark the end of the Great Guide
Getaway and celebrate our Centenary World Thinking Day.
This was the first and only time all the participants joined
together – and what a celebration they had!
After 2 years of organisation by Abi Salter, Lead Volunteer and
her team, the event culminated with a gigantic fair in Frutigen
with a huge variety of stalls including popcorn, Centenary Duck
Shooting, Pick a Pressie, Huamn Fruit Machine, a Snowman Tombola
and two yummy chocolate fountains. Guides were entertained by
a professional dancer, Daniel, Captain Green, the magician, and a
giant stiltwalker as they made their way around the arena.
After lots of fun and frolics, the evening closed with a magical
World Thinking Day presentation, including a procession of 50
lanterns carried by a Guide from every group and a group rendition
of the song “One Voice”, led by the staff at Our Chalet. We
were delighted to welcome Lesley Knighton, a member of the Chief
Guide’s team, who joined us to experience the spectacle and to lead
the World Thinking Day celebrations.
As the participants left the event to return to their venues
before the long journey home, the snow started to fall once again –
a fitting way to end a truly mountain-top moment.
Thanks must go to the following for making this
adventure happen:
- Abi Salter, Lead Volunteer and her team of Girlguiding UK
volunteer staff
- All at Venture Abroad
- Girlguiding UK
- Sally Thornton and the Our Chalet team
World Thinking Day at Our
Chalet
In the Ice Palace
Thursday 18 February 2010
The group staying at Our Chalet travelled to Lauterbrunnen to
catch the train to the top of Jungfraujoch today.
Ashby Guides share their experiences...
Today we visited the wonder that is the immense Ice Palace. We
explored all the tunnels, saw some epic sights and we had a
crawling race in the palace.
In the evening, we held a Chalet's Got Talent competition - the
winners were Emma and Lida from Pocklington, followed by the York
Guides with their rendition of Happy Birthday to Leader, Kate.
The Our Chalet staff also entered the talent contest; they made
us all laugh and stunned us with their incredible dancing skills in
their performance of 'If I were not at Our Chalet'.
Groups from Lenk visited Our Chalet and had a great time
learning all about the World Centre.
Guides from Lenk had fun earlier on in
the week when they tried their hand at curling – Winter Olympics
here we come!!
Tuesday 16 February 2010
Girls and their Leaders from Frutighus in Frutigen came to visit
Our Chalet today for the international experience at the World
Centre - here's a photo of them all on the Chalet steps:
They even made a Centenary 100 in the snow! See right.
Meanwhile, the group of Guides staying at Our Chalet trekked into
the mountains for an adventurous day of snow-shoeing. In the
afternoon, they learnt how to build igloos with help from the Swiss
Alpenschule instructors - and then enjoyed afternoon tea in their
new shelters!
Emily, aged 13 from Radlett Guides, said: "I really enjoyed the
igloo building; we all worked together really well even if the roof
did collapse! But snow-shoe walking was the best fun,
especially falling over!"
Monday 15 February 2010
We have had a super first day of our magical Centenary Adventure
in Switzerland.
Today we heard from some of the girls staying at the WAGGGS
World Centre, Our Chalet in Adelboden. They learnt about the
history of Our Chalet, the first WAGGGS World Centre, and found out
more about WAGGGS and its work with the 10 million Girl Guides and
Girl Scouts worldwide by exploring the site in a Wide Game.
Tiffany, aged 12 from 7th Welwyn Garden City
Guides, said that the snow was really deep and amazingly
fun to walk in. “Sliding down the hills in the snow was
really fun! One of the best activities was building the
snowmen, but our snowman wasn’t really a snowman - it was a snow
hat!”
Emily, aged 13, from Bushey Guides said “We did
loads of exciting snow activities, and the snow was so deep, it
came up to our thighs! We rolled down loads of hills; it was
AWESOME! No snow we get in the UK again will ever be as good as the
snow here”.
Annabel, aged 12, also from Bushey “We have had
such a good time so far, I love playing in the snow! I’ve been on
some snow holidays before, but this is definitely the best”.
For Tayla, from Bushey Guides, this was a
fantastic first Guide holiday. She said “so far it has been
absolutely amazing, the snow is literally like thigh deep and
extremely hard to walk in; building Ralph the snowman got to have
been the best so far!”
Did you know? Fun facts about Our Chalet…
One of the buildings in grounds, Baby Chalet, was built for the
founder, Helen Storrow, in just one week!
One of the newer buildings, Spycher, has its own bomb shelter in
case of nuclear emergency – it can hold 18 members of staff.
In Our Chalet, there is a room with seven beds – nicknamed the
Seven Dwarves’ Room!
Find out more on the Our Chalet website.
Sunday 14 February 2010
Eventually, after hours on the road we have all safely arrived
in Switzerland.
Groups of Guides and their Leaders boarded the coach on
Saturday evening and were all given their Great Guide Getaway hats
- brightly coloured pink, purple, blue, orange and green - it was
fun playing 'Spot the Hat' on the ferry, although we probably gave
the other passengers a surprise!
After a ferry journey throughout the night, we spent most of
today travelling through France and then into Switzerland by
coach, stopping en-route for a hearty soup lunch at
Egerkingen.
All our venues have been decorated with Centenary flags and
banners and we are all excitedly getting to know our new
guiding friends with activities in their venues.
Harriet and Alice from 1st Knayton and Borrowby Guides
have travelled all the way from North Yorkshire. They said 'it did
actually take us 26 hours, but we're really excited. Every
time we stopped we thought we were crossing the border into
Switzerland'.
The are staying at Our Chalet and love the comfy beds,
and are now looking forward to their night-time hot
chocolates!
We cannot wait to start off our Adventure tomorrow...check
back for lots of photographs of the trip so far!
Saturday 13 February 2010
The Adventure begins....
After months of planning and excitement, the Great Guide Getaway
to Switzerland has arrived!
Some of the Girlguiding UK volunteer team are already en route
in Switzerland, with a jam-packed car and are hastily putting the
final preparations in place with the 6 venues we are using for this
trip in the Bernese Oberland.
Meanwhile, the 600 Guides and their Leaders, and 100 adults on
the Adult Switzerland Adventure, are starting their journeys to
meet their coaches - with groups meeting up from all over the UK,
from Belfast to Swansea, from Thirsk to Somerset.
Coach journeys will begin this afternoon and by Sunday evening
all of us will be settled in for a magical Swiss adventure!
Keep checking back for updates throughout this week!