Saturday 12th May

Floriade here we come!

And so, after breakfast we made our way to Venlo in southeast Holland, home of the 2012 World Horticultural Expo, Floriade. This unique event takes place every 10 years. Quite a few of my fellow traveller’s had been to Floriade a decade ago, whilst for others like me it was a whole new experience.

With tickets, cameras and maps in hand, and 6 hours to explore the 66 hectares of the Floriade site, the group was off. Hope everyone’s wearing comfy shoes!

With 5 unique themed worlds to explore, ‘Relax and Heal,’ ‘Green Engine,’ ‘Education & Innovation,’ ‘Environment’ and ‘World Show Stage,’ everyone was asking ‘Where shall we go first?’ And then the rain came, so the first stop for many of us was Villa Flora, Europe’s largest indoor flower show in the ‘Green Engine’ area. Wow! Even from the outside this striking glass building standing 30 metres in height is impressive and inside it’s a riot of colour. It’s a real showcase of classic, modern, trendy and extreme designs. Amazing flower displays all around, a huge wooden tree-house filled with ‘green sweets’ and even an elephant made out of orchids from Thailand. Brightly coloured buckets of flowers cascade down from the ceiling, trolleys of gerbera are here, there and everywhere!

The rain didn’t last for long, and so with the sun shining it was time to head outdoors. I wandered through the Easy Prairie Garden and then arrived in the Relax and Heal area before taking the cable car to the World Show Stage. A carpet of blooms paved the way to the stage where later in the day The Floriade Show took place.

Other highlights of the Floriade site included the China Pavilion characterized by lotuses and other typical indigenous flowers, plants and trees and a series of large ponds. There was also the Rabo Earthwalk where we ‘walked across the roof of the world.’

Sunday 13th May

Today we visited Keukenhof – the sun was out and not a cloud in the sky!

Sweets were being passed up and down the coach and a fabulous atmosphere surrounded us! We all enjoyed singing a host of our favorite songs to pass the time – Our Chalet Song, Tulips from Amsterdam, Little mouse on the stairs, Kookaburra… the journey soon passed!

Upon arrival in Keukenhof we set off for our canal trip; we glided silently through a tour of the bulb fields, where wildlife was in abundance!

There was so much going on – the bustle of Mill Square was exhilarating, the Beatrix Pavilion was home to the most spectacular orchid show and the Oranje Nassau Pavilion was too good to miss with its “trendy” flower arranging demos.

Not quite the carpets of colour many had hoped for, but nevertheless the rows of tulips still in the fields were an amazing sight!

At this point it was extremely hard… if not impossible to resist the smell of the waffles being served nearby!

We had time for a spot of souvenir shopping before heading back to Valkenburg.

On the coach we all had time to reflect on what had been a great day for everyone had had & how lucky we’d been with the weather. If only we’d been able to stay a bit longer at Keukenhof…

Monday 14th May

Just time for a quick group photo before leaving hotel.

I spy with my little eye… coffee and cake stop in ‘Spy’ Belgium

Time to weather the traffic back to Calais… and of course the M20!

We all arrived back on UK soil absolutely shattered after what had been an amazing trip! We’d walked our socks off, and captured many wonderful memories of our time in Holland.

I felt honored to have spent time in such great company!

Roll on the Cardiff Annual Meeting…!

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Floriade 2012

18 May 2012
36 photos

I have been working with the rest of the Venture Abroad team planning this trip for months and I was beginning to wonder if this day would ever arrive. There I was at 7.30am boarding the coach and the excitement for the trip was beginning to kick in. We promptly chose our seats and began the first leg of our journey to Dover.

We arrived in Dover slightly ahead of schedule and we were pleased to hear that we could board an earlier than planned ferry across to Calais. A short and smooth journey across the Channel gave us time to stretch our legs, grab a drink and, for some, a snack before jumping back on the coach.

We waved “bonjour” and “au revoir” as we passed through France and, as I write this, we have just crossed the Belgian border. Only 175 miles to go and we are in Valkenburg, our home for the next few days!

The closer we get, the more the excitement builds. The plans for tonight? I think it will be an evening meal, maybe a quick scope of the local area, then early to bed to prepare ourselves for tomorrow’s big day out at the Floriade!

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Floriade 2012

18 May 2012
36 photos

I am very much looking forward to meeting up with the group this evening at WAGGGS World Centre Pax Lodge. But first, I need to make it to London, which might be easier said than done what with the planned train driver strikes today. Keep your fingers crossed that my train is running!

We’ve got a great itinerary ahead of us. Over two days we will get the chance to not only explore the delights of Floriade, a World Horticultural Expo but also experience spring in all it’s glory at Keukenhof, the largest bulb park in the world. I can’t wait!

I will fill you on all the details of our trip next week! Look out for my on-line diary!

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Floriade 2012

18 May 2012
36 photos

It’s 7.30am and a sea of hot pink ski jackets swamp Ronaldsway airport in the Isle of Man as 26 Brownies, senior section and leaders from Ballaugh and Arbory Brownies descend to start their journey to Disneyland Paris. It’s hard to believe that the time has come to start our adventure after months of fundraising …… selling chocolate brownies, a sponsored rescue, a 60’s, 70’s and 80’s night for the grown ups and a Christmas auction. The excitement increases as a life size Mickey Mouse appears from nowhere wishing the Brownies well on their journey (Tawny Owl is a sport!). Before you know it we’re striding through departures to board our Flybe flight to Gatwick airport. No more sleeps, we’re off!

We arrive at Gatwick airport in London at about 11am and are met by Dave our coach driver from Woodcocks coaches. We travel on towards the Channel tunnel, animated faces watching the world go by. After a couple of comfort stops we reach the ‘Chunnel’. This was a new experience for most of us and our expectations were somewhat different to the reality… in a coach, on a train, in a tunnel… what more can be said? It only takes us half an hour to reach Calais and then we head on to Paris, stopping en route for our first taste of French cuisine in a service station in Veron.  Brown Owl’s O’level grasp of the French language (not practiced for some 25 years!) did somehow manage to get us fed and we then set-off on the last leg of our journey to Disneyland Paris. The closer we get, the more frequent the signs and the more eager we all become. Finally, some twelve hours after meeting at the Isle of Man airport we arrive and are met by the Venture Abroad reps, who look after us and show us to our cabins for a long awaited rest.

Saturday 28^th January, 2012

7.00am (French time) and Brown Owl is up and bouncing around like Tigger! After a quick whizz around the cabins with a trill of Hi-di-hi campers, it is soon ascertained that all are ready for breakfast. This is delivered and yummmmmmm! French loaf, pain au lait, croissants, jam, coffee, chocolate spread, tea, coffee, juice… we all have our fill and get ready for the day ahead.

9.30am and, having split into groups of who wants the ‘scary’ rides (how I managed to get into this group still escapes me) and who wants the gentle rides, we board the coach and set off for Disneyland. The anticipation builds as we get closer… from the coach park we can see space mountain and, having set a meeting place (5pm at City Hall for the parade) we skip along the moving walkways towards the parks!

Our morning begins in Discoveryland, alighting the Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast ride. It’s evident that my shooting skills are a little rusty to say the least – only scoring 2,100 which is less than everyone!  We travel on, trying out Captain EO, Les Mysteres du Nautilus and, for the brave few, Space Mountain (I had to purchase the photo as nobody would actually believe I did it!).

After a quick stop for a burger lunch, Fantasyland is next and there was much merriment as we all boarded Dumbo the flying elephant and the Mad Hatter’s tea cups. ‘It’s a small world’ was wonderful and one Brownie took over 40 photographs on the way around. In Adventureland, we marvelled at Aladdin’s cave and, after stopping in the Disney castle to gaze around, made our way through to Frontierland. Unfortunately (?), Big Thunder Mountain had a queuing time of over an hour so we settled for a spooky trip through Phantom Manor before boarding the Disneyland railroad to take us back to City Hall, where we were meeting the rest of our party for the parade.

Laughter and chatter rang out through Main Street as the girls in the hot pink jackets regrouped to watch the parade… what a fantastic spectacle! The floats and dancers were magnificent, the girls’ faces were alight as the Disney princesses danced up to them and waved and a pirate with a wicked glint in his eye tried to persuade Ooma (one of our Guiders) to run away with him.

We then toddled off to Planet Hollywood where our evening meal was booked. Superbly organised, in a hall packed with other members of the Guiding movement, all chattering about the day’s events. A delicious meal was served and we headed off to shop, shop, shop! Presents for home, souvenirs, sweeties for a midnight feast – a grand time was had by all.

At 9pm we met our coach who took us back to our cabins at the Davy Crockett Ranch and, even though our coach driver wasn’t scheduled to drive, he came along to ensure our travel plans for the next day were all in order (what a sweetie). Exhausted, we all tumble into our beds and sleep.

Sunday 29^th January, 2012

6.00 am and, annoyingly at such an early hour, Brown Owl is bouncing around again. All packed and ready to go we board our coach at 7.30 to Café Mickey for breakfast with the characters. What a spread is laid out before us… cooked, continental anything you could wish for. Plates piled high with delicious food. Suddenly Goofy appears in the café… he patiently visits every table, signing autographs and posing for pictures, followed by a very sad donkey and Mickey Mouse himself!

All too soon it’s time for us to depart and, singing and skipping along, we meet Dave in the coach park and head for home. At Calais we spend the last of our Euros in the supermarket and disembark the coach to show our passports to the border control. After a quick return on the ‘Chunnel’ we are once again on UK soil heading back to Gatwick. We say our goodbyes to Dave and make our way to Giraffe in Gatwick airport for a wonderful feast. The check-in staff at Flybe were waiting for us and had booked our seats together on the flight home. We were afforded the use of the family security room which made everything effortless and before we knew it we were on the final leg of our journey home to the Isle of Man. We arrived at 9pm to a sea of awaiting family and friends. Even though exhaustion was clear, the girls still managed to tell all about their wonderful trip.

A lifetime of memories in three short days. Thank you Venture Abroad for the experience of a lifetime.

Elaine Fenton
1st Ballaugh (St. Mary’s) & 1st Arbory Brownies

How to sum up last weekend in Disneyland Paris, but here it goes! The excitement began as the groups rolled up at Disney’s Davy Crockett Ranch and Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne on Friday night. The real adventure however started on Saturday morning, when the Brownies and Guides caught their first glimpse of the Disneyland Park Gates! The day was spent riding roller coasters and seeing their favourite Disney Characters… there was no sign of Mickey Mouse though! But imagine the smiles when he appeared at The Character Breakfast on Sunday morning! Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Chip & Dale joined Mickey as they went to each table to sign autographs and take pictures.

After Breakfast, the Brownies went into Paris to see the Eiffel Tower whilst the Guides went into the parks for a second day of fun! It seemed to all be over in a flash with lots of happy faces at the end of it. I am sure that everyone slept really well on Sunday night; I know I did!

Last weekend was once again a great experience and I am looking forward to this weekend already!

We arrived on-site early this morning to ensure that everything was ready for the arrival of hundreds of Guides, Scouts, Brownies and Cubs later on today. The cabins at the ranch are set and the Cheyenne Hotel is ready and waiting for its guests.

It’s the 6^th year that I have been part of these weekend breaks and sometimes I wonder if my enthusiasm for a trip to Disneyland Paris will ever fade – but I am glad to report that it hasn’t yet! It’s such an exciting place that just can’t fail to exhilarate -especially those who love rides and attractions.

Today will be spent welcoming groups in for a good night’s rest before the fun really begins tomorrow as we enter the parks. Sunday will bring another day in the parks for most, before they journey back to the UK in the late afternoon.

Some of our groups have kindly offered to give you an insight into their trip once they return and I will be back to give you an update on our first weekend break early next week! Watch this space!

We arrived back to Birmingham airport on Monday evening, after a whistle stop tour of the highlights of Agra and Delhi over the weekend.

A guided tour of Agra on Friday took in the massive Agra fort, beautiful Baby Taj and a marble factory where we were shown the techniques used on the Taj Mahal’s stunning marble patterns. This was followed in the evening by a very Bollywood show telling the love story behind the Taj Mahal, and on Saturday morning we went to see it for ourselves. As the sun rose over the Taj, we watched it emerge from the haze and grow warmer and brighter with the sunlight. A truly stunning sight, and well worth the dawn wake up call!

Returning to Delhi, we were shown round the Red Fort, India’s largest mosque Jama Masjid, a memorial to Gandhi at Raj Ghat, Humayun’s Tomb, Qutab Minar monument and the Bahai Lotus Temple. We also took bicycle rickshaws through the winding streets of Old Delhi, which was a bit of a hair raising experience, despite having been in India for 15 days by then!

I have brought home some amazing memories of my trip to India, and would like to thank the group from Girlguiding Birmingham for making it such an enjoyable couple of weeks and for welcoming me into your group. Dhanyavad (thank you) and phir milenge!

… and since I didn’t see an elephant, I’ll just have to find an excuse to go back!

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India

14 November 2011
148 photos

How time flies! Our stay at Sangam is coming to an end, and we have just had the closing ceremony to mark it. I’ll take you back through the past few days since my last post. We have visited a number of community partners whom Sangam works closely with, including Tara Mobile Creche, Deep Griha sights which run medical and educational programmes, and Maher which is a centre for women and children. It has been both humbling and inspiring to visit these centres where volunteers and local staff are making such a huge impact on the lives of the communities.

On Saturday we organised a fun day for 60 children from 2 of the centres. The UK groups ran crafts, parachute games, cricket and other outdoor games, sang songs and played pass the parcel with the children, which all went down very well. My highlight was dancing the conga round the garden with a string of giggling children following behind me. It was also a great way to celebrate my birthday! Following Indian tradition, I had to cut the first slice of birthday cake, and Mina, a Sangam member of staff, then preceded to feed me the piece of cake! Certainly a birthday I’ll never forget!

We have also enjoyed a performance on the life of Gandhi by a group of children from Maher, which was very well done. They are performing in Glasgow next summer, so if you happen to be up there, do go and see the show! On Sunday we visited the Aga Khan Palace in Pune, which houses a memorial on Gandhi, and it was where Gandhi, his wife and secretary were imprisoned between 1942 and 1944. We also stopped at Alandi which features a picture postcard scene with women in their saris washing along the banks of the river, and the oldest temple in India which was magnificent.

Yesterday we gathered photos from the week, learnt the art of Indian embroidery, Warli tribal art and enjoyed a good old sing song at the campfire last night. There’s just time to learn how to tie our saris this afternoon before a traditional Maharastra (the region Pune is in) dinner this evening. Tomorrow morning we will head up to Delhi and on to Agra where our adventures continue… Still no elephants so I’ve got my fingers crossed for the next couple of days!

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India

14 November 2011
32 photos

Hello! We have a jam packed programme at Sangam, but this afternoon there’s a bit of time to relax, take a dip in the pool, write some postcards, and I thought I’d come and fill you in on what’s been happening this week. Mumbai feels like a very long time ago, and the past few days at Sangam have been incredible…

Sangam is located amongst lots of different areas that are really close together, so on the other side of the road there is an illegal slum, with simple basic shelters and tents. Then just next door to that there’s a middle class area with decent houses with little front gardens, they have cars and motorbikes. Then along from that there’s a walled estate with high rise upper middle class apartments and you have to earn over 15000 Rupees (about 190 GBP) a month to be able to live there. Next door to Sangam (outside the Sangam compound) there’s another area which is a legal slum, and the houses are slightly better, some with actual corrugated iron roofs and bricked walls, but still pretty shack-like. The ladies wash in the river just outside our walls. We have a dhobi (washer man) service which costs 15 Rupees per item (77 Rs = 1 GBP), and he takes it away after breakfast one day and brings it back clean and ironed the next. Amazing, and ridiculous value.

Pune is quite a nice place, we’ve walked into town on a few days and done a bit of shopping, caught our first rickshaw the other morning which was a little hairy but I loved it! We had 3 of us crammed in the back of one, and motorbikes with whole families on the back of them whizzing past.

On the way back from town yesterday we saw some cattle that looked like buffalo, a stylish white cow was eating the rubbish outside yesterday, and I saw a very floppy eared goat just outside the gate this morning. That’s my animal update for today! I’m still waiting and hoping to see an elephant! Apparently they are around, so watch this space…

It’s gorgeous weather here, very hot but cool bright mornings. I have been enjoying yoga early in the mornings, it’s such a relaxing way to start the day, when it’s lovely and cool, very still (except the screaming rush hour outside), the mosque is bellowing with the call for prayer echoing round, and the yoga teacher, who works at the hospital doing physio and rehabilitation, does a little spiritual bit at the end which is pitched just right.

Yesterday we went to Laxmi road, which is the main shopping area of Pune. We took in the fruit and vegetable markets, bangle alley, spice stores and various other stalls and bazaars. But the most exciting part was sari shopping! Mine is midnight blue with red edging and a red blouse. There was such an incredible choice of beautiful fabrics, we were there a while! When I saw the midnight blue fabric, I just fell for it. We’ve been measured by the tailor (who came to Sangam) who is going to bring back our tailored blouses and Punjabi suits and fit them in a couple of days time. The morning was a good balance between being shown where to go by the Sangam volunteers, and then being free to wander ourselves and take a rickshaw back.

Yesterday evening was a memorable one, we all went out for dinner at an Indian family’s house. The family we went to was 2 twin 17 year old girls called Shweta and Namrata who are Guides and meet at Sangam, and their Mum who cooked for us. Their little 5 year old cousin Anushka was also there. Shweta speaks good English so it was really interesting getting to know them, we sat on the floor and ate with one hand. The food was delicious, we had bhajis, dhal, a potato dish, chappattis, rice, and homemade mango chutney. The girls did mehndi on our hands so the 3 of us now have pretty patterns on our palms. The family were so generous, they got out some earrings and gave them to us after we had given them our gifts of knitted jumpers, a calendar of the sights of Birmingham, tea towels and so on. It was fascinating hearing about other people’s evenings too, we all had completely different experiences. One group down the road had a cow poking its head round the curtain half way through dinner!

We are getting an authentic experience of real life India in Pune, as there are no tourists here. The whole group seem to be relishing every moment. Each day brings more things we never expected to see. They say India is an experience for all the senses, and so far it is proving to be just that.

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India

14 November 2011
32 photos

Hello from Sangam! After a couple of days travelling, we arrived today at India’s Guiding World Centre in Pune, just over 100 miles south east of Mumbai. 17 members of Girlguiding Birmingham and myself are here for the next 10 days to take part in a cultural programme.

We stopped overnight in Mumbai en route and our guide Shilpa showed us around the city. Yesterday was a national holiday and the last Sunday in Diwali, so the streets were even more bustling than usual! There was a great festival-like atmosphere down by the Gate of India, which overlooks the Arabian Sea on one side and the famous Taj Mahal hotel on the other. We also wandered around the Hanging Gardens and saw the Victoria Terminus, which is an intricate Gothic style building and India’s busiest railway station. Finally we stopped off at Dhobi Ghat, where the local men do the washing – what a novelty! The coach tour around Mumbai soon gave us a good idea of how the roads work in India, apparently if you can drive here you can drive anywhere… According to Shilpa, you just need 3 things: good brakes, good horn and good luck!

Thankfully our coach driver today followed that moto and we arrived safely at Sangam this afternoon. Having settled in and explored the grounds, we are all looking forward to the start of the programme tomorrow!

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India

14 November 2011
32 photos