Hello Dear Reader
It has been a long while coming be here is the final part of my recent trip to Germany with the scouts
Incase you need to catch up you can find parts 1, 2, & 3 at the links provided. So where had we got to, yes Friday.
Friday 30th July
This was quite and important day for the scouts from Hannover this was the day they actually finished the E1 through Germany, the last walking group finished there walk at lake Constance however the very last section was to walk from the lake across the German/Swiss border a grand total of about 1km.
Before this walk took place we gathered in what appeared to be a band stand in the park in Constance. We hosted the Mayor of Constance at this little gathering where we discussed the journey to get to Constance and presented awards to people in each of the age groups in scouting who had walking the most km of the E1. This was followed by all the groups doing a freeze frame showing their journey.
It is interesting crossing a border within a town there were no guards, no patrols there was a passport control but it was closed. I mean it all looked pretty official there was even a barrier across the road but it was just empty, the real comedy of the whole thing was if you walked round the corner then there was a large playing field where you could effectively stand with on leg in Germany one leg is Switzerland.
Following the photo of everyone on the border we had a picnic lunch in Switzerland (giving everyone much amusement in saying I am just popping to Switzerland for lunch)
The last part of the day was spent exploring Constance and finding presents for family etc. before heading back to the campsite.
Saturday 1st August
After all the excitement of the day before, Saturday was spend on the campsite. We played a huge wide game in the woods behind the campsite and followed this by having fun in the site swimming pool. The pool had a slide and it was a lot of fun to see how many people we could get to slide down the slide at once I think we got about 20 people in a constant stream down the slide into the pool below.
In between the fun in the pool and the fun in the woods we started to pack up our kit and tidy up to make the Sunday and easier day.
Sunday 2nd August
The morning of Sunday was organised chaos, there was a large amount of tidying up and there is a fair amount of canvas to put away and the gateway had to come down and the bits of trees taken back to the woods. All this before 14:00 as there was one bus from the campsite to the station and we had 2 min between the arrival of the bus and the departure of the train.
Once everything was packed away and the campsite was cleared we held our closing ceremony and there was the usual mix of badge and knecker swapping.
Despite our tight timeline, German efficiency won through with and we were on the train with 2 mins to spare.
The train took us with one change all the way to Zürich where we caught a bus to the Airport, a plan home to the UK and finally a Bus from Heathrow back to Woodhouse Park. I know that end sounds like I rushed, it but there is very little to say about it, apart from while we were on the train to Zürich we saw the most awesome waterfall (picture below)
I enjoyed the whole thing it proved to me a number of things
- I am not a fit as I thought I was
- Language is no a barrier to Scouting and Friendship
- Scouting really does mean you can throw together 15 young people and make a trip work in 3 months
Well I think that is enough for now.
TTFN
