Hear from our Rangers and Young leaders when they joined the Girlguiding LaSER trip to Belgium and took part in adventures, exploring and sight seeing.
Day 1 – The adventure begins
We started our adventure by meeting our team at the Worthing Cissbury headquarters hall, nice and early (5:45am). Once everyone arrived we made our way to the station and travelled up to meet some of the other groups at Ebbsfleet International Station. We went through security and passport control both in the British and French sectors.
The 50min delay allowed us time to have a leisurely (and healthy?) breakfast of sweets! The leaders took the opportunity to talk to the other groups who were also travelling to Belgium for the event. We all played games until, it was time to board the train.
Once arrived, we travelled as brave explorers into the great unknown to the thinking day event which was held in an hotel in the centre of Brussels.
“We received a lot of really good advice about leadership and socialised with people.”
Afterwards we had a wander through the touristy area of Brussels and bought some chocolate – YUM! We found the Hard Rock Café where we had planned to have dinner, and discussed the afternoon events over burgers, fries and salad.
Once replenished we ambled back to the apartment where we were all very ready to rest out weary heads on our pillows and restore our energies ready for the wide game tomorrow, oh and of course WIN!
Day 2 – Wide Game
After we got washed and had some breakfast, we walked to the start of the LaSER quest at the Grand Place, Cathedral where all the other Ranger teams were meeting. We had a group photo, given our activity pack and started on our exciting adventure.
We decided to spend some time planning so found a waffle house to sort out what we had to do and get into some order so we were not having to go back and forth across the City.
Just a flavour of what we got up to below, and not forgetting our mascot, Bel(gium).
Day 3 – Bruges
We were able to have a lay in this morning and have a proper relax; ecstatic for our day ahead in Bruges.
We travelled to Bruges by train, arriving at our destination. Walking from the station to the Grand Market, past a beautiful canal and queued up go up the Belfry, 366 steps to the top for an amazing view. Once down from the Belfry we had lunch in the square.
The Craenenburg restaurant served lovely food and had a great selection. When lunch was finished, we searched for the Chocolate museum but failed (think the buildings were too high and the Wi-Fi not strong enough) but did find the 2 best chocolate shops in Belgium, Chocolate Line and Dumon. We all bought from Dumon and loved the bags which we were able to use showing where we had been.
Finally, it was time to get to the station for our return journey to Brussels, collect our luggage and through check-in and passport control to await our train to Ebbsfleet.
Once on the train we tucked into our packed lunches and settled down to the 1.5hour journey home.
This was an amazing adventure!
If you would like to know more about joining Rangers in the Worthing Cissbury then you can register your interest here.
Worthing Cissbury Division Girlguiding 