London, Aug. 1999

I can’t believe it’s been about 14 years since I went on a Guiding trip to the United Kingdom and Switzerland. It was a trip first planned during our last year of Pathfinders and the trip itself was in the summer of 1999 as some of us were finishing up as Rangers.

Stacey, one of my best friends, was amongst our small group of that consisted of four girls and two adult leaders. We went to London for just a few days and stayed at Pax Lodge as a hostel. We then flew to Switzerland and stayed at Our Chalet for a full week.

I remember being amazed at the size of London and how many people that were constantly coming and going. Yes I had been to come big cities like Toronto, but this was a completely different experience.

Although our time in London was very short, there are some great memories from those couple of days, including an epic search for a specific theatre so that us four young ladies could go see the musical Rent! Our leaders, Joan and Liz had other things they wanted to do so we set off on our own in the very big city. We ended up getting a little lost and even had our map start to fall apart. Ha ha. But we made it to the show on time and without any major problems. To this day, Rent! is still my favourite musical.

It was an amazing trip and I’m very thankful to have had the opportunity to go when I was only 18. My parents had a lot of faith in me and obviously were the reason I could financially pull it off. Thanks again Mom and Dad!

Next week, a photo from this same trip, but when we visited Stonehenge for the day.