On July 8, 21 youth and adults of the 62nd Europe 2024 Trip Unit left Toronto to start the trip of a lifetime. In the fourth and final instalment of their story, the group arrives in Munich, Germany and then travels to their final destination – Adelboden, Switzerland.
After a traffic jam en route to Germany and a late dinner the previous night, we were ready for a quieter day. After breakfast, we began with a guided tour of Munich with our local Guide, Franka. We viewed many historical and modern aspects of the city and made a stop at Nymphenburg Palace, then walked to the Marienplatz to hear the bells chime.
We then boarded our bus for the Dachau Holocaust Memorial site. It was an incredible and heart wrenching experience. We were especially moved by the interpretation at the site. Although the tour was self-guided, there were multiple ways to engage with the history, but also to reflect, remember and honour the victims. We were also struck by the emphasis on the agency, resistance and resiliency of the people interred there, and our group was incredibly thankful for the opportunity to visit and learn.
After our time at Dachau, we returned to Marienplatz for lunch and some free time. We enjoyed listening to the many buskers and shopping at the fruit stands. After viewing a few more sites related to WWII history (including a golden trail that commemorated the people in Munich who resisted the Kristallnacht) we proceeded to dinner for a traditional schnitzel meal and apfelkuchen for dessert.
We headed back to our hotel and after a farewell ceremony for our amazing Tour Director Hannah and our fellow travellers from Newfoundland, we headed to our rooms to repack for our next stop - Adelboden, Switzerland and Our Chalet! [Editor's note: Our Chalet is part of the WAGGGS World Centres]
The next morning, we boarded our tour bus for the last time to head to the train station. This leg of our journey was the most complex, with a number of precisely timed train trips and connections. Of course, the plan immediately went out the window when the train was re-routed. Luckily, we’d made friends with the very friendly Swiss conductor, and he helped us to re-plan our route and get to our final train to Bern. From there, we took a series of buses up the mountain to Adelboden – a beautiful village in the Swiss Alps.
A traditional part of the visit to Our Chalet is the hike up the last leg of the mountain, as there is no bus service to the centre. The average time to do the hike is 30 to 45 minutes so we were excited when our whole group made it up in under 25 minutes – all our hiking over the previous two years had helped!
We were warmly greeted by the staff and volunteers at Our Chalet, had a bit of time to visit the gift shop and unpack, and then we were off to dinner in the dining hall, where we were able to meet some of the other groups also visiting the Chalet from around the world, including Girl Scouts from Demark and the United States. It had been a long travel day, so we were thankful for the chance to have a relaxing night in the peaceful calm of the mountains!
The last full day of our trip was important for a number of reasons - it was our pinning ceremony and tour at Our Chalet - the second International Guiding centre on our trip, our last day to explore the Swiss Alps and the village of Adelboden, and it was our youngest trip member's 13th birthday!
We started our day with a traditional Swiss breakfast buffet consisting of muesli and yoghurt, fruit, cheese, milk, bread and jam. We then headed outside to participate in the pinning ceremony alongside some members of Girl Scouts USA, with a view of the village of Adelboden and the Swiss Alps! We also enjoyed a tour of the Chalet, where we learned about the history of the first Guiding World Centre.
Following the tour, we changed and walked down the hill to eat our picnic lunch, and then took the bus from Adelboden Oey to the Adelboden bus station. We had time to explore the main street, enjoy some gelato, and do some shopping, then headed to our meeting point for a surprise we had arranged for the group - a horse-drawn carriage tour of the village (the birthday Pathfinder got to sit in the front seat with the driver and the farm pup)!
After the tour, we split up - most of the group stayed in the village for some more shopping and a visit to the famous Trummer’s store, while a small group of us headed up to the Woodcarver's shop to pick up carved wooden "woggles" (a large wooden bead-type structure for Guiding and Scouting ties). This was a lovely location and was extra special to experience as a family – the owners even gave Bella an Edelweiss flower from their garden as a birthday gift!
We headed back to Our Chalet, met some Irish Girl Guides on the way, and then went to the beautiful dining hall for an excellent dinner of Alpine Mac & Cheese, where we were able to meet more members from GSUSA. Dessert included the Our Chalet version of Happy Birthday, sung in five languages!
After dinner we took some time to relax and do some packing, before enjoying a wonderful campfire with the Danish scouts and a GSUSA Brownie and her mom who were travelling independently. This was a wonderful way to cap off our trip - enjoying the sisterhood of Guiding in a beautiful location! We were sad to leave our European adventure behind, but everyone was looking forward to seeing their families and pets again.
However, our Swiss experience was not done with us yet! Despite an early morning departure and hike back down the mountain to catch our bus, we were rewarded with an incredible mountain sunrise – a beautiful way to end our time in Adelboden! This time, our train journey was uneventful, and we made it to the Zurich airport with some time to spare.
As it turns out, our travel luck hadn’t quite run out – as we happened to be departing at the time that the Microsoft outage caused a huge worldwide travel disruption! Luckily, Air Canada was not affected, and we were one of the very few planes that departed Zurich that day.
On our flight home we had a stunning view of Greenland from the plane. Arriving in Toronto was bittersweet – we were thrilled to see loved ones, but sad that our journey, two years in the making, was over. Ultimately, we left the airport feeling thankful for the incredible experiences we’d had, the lifelong friendships made and strengthened, and all the support we have had from family, friends and the community along the way. We would like to thank everyone for buying cookies and following along on our travels, and we look forward to our next Guiding Adventure!
