This journey started in July 2022. The 2nd Russell Rover Crew wanted to experience a once in a lifetime adventure of traveling together across Western Europe. We started planning out the details of the trip such as what countries and cities we wanted to visit, where we were going to stay and what we were going to do. We quickly realized how much our bill for the trip was adding up and shifted our focus to fundraising once we had a general trip outline planned. We hosted bottle drives and dinner, movie & dances for our community, and sold Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Through our hard work, we were able to raise over $3, 000 in under a year for our 7 participants going on the adventure. By June 2023 our funds had been raised, our plane tickets booked, the details of the trip planned out, and the event approved by Scouts Canada, all there was to do was wait in anticipation of the adventure... and of course to pack our gear!

Day One

We all arrived at the Montreal airport with our bodies loaded with backpacks and the excitement yet exhaustion for the adventure ahead. Almost all of our bags were searched due to knives (yes they will search your bag even if it's a plastic butter knife for you to eat), some carry on bags were searched but we all made it through security with most of our items (RIP one Rovers headphones and phone charger). We eagerly traveled to our gate to await our boarding time. We all made it onto the plane in Montreal, with only one close call regarding Sun chips, and landed in Amsterdam about 6 hours later. With only a layover of 2 hours, we made it through customs and arrived at our gate early. We were one flight away from Switzerland and at this point, the lack of sleep was catching up to us. Finally we all landed safely in Zurich Switzerland. From there, it was about an hour of train rides to arrive at Kandersteg International Scout Centre (KISC). So we loaded up our gear on our backs and headed to the train station. With the help of google maps, the Eurail Rail app and the kind station worker, we found the train we wanted... just not the right section. With the fear of missing the train, we loaded ourselves into a Class 1 section and made our way throughout the train to find the Class 2 area. This may not be as simple as it sounds. We went towards the back of the train, the front of the train and on both levels. About 15 minutes later, we finally found Class 2 seats! One swift train change in Bern and our journey continued. Once our train landed in Kandersteg, Switzerland we were only one bus ride away from camp. We arrived at KISC, found the office to check in and about an hour later were setting up our tents for our stay. After camp was set up, our focus quickly switched to food. The local buses were no longer running for the day so half of us decided to make the 20 minute walk into town to the grocery store (CoOp) to get food for everyone after being awake for 28+ hours. We filled our bellies and crawled into our tents for some sleep at about 8:00pm.

Day Two

For our first full day in Europe, we decided to visit Interlaken, Switzerland where we enjoyed a ride on the Harderbahn Funicular. The funicular was packed but the walking trail after was peaceful with amazing views of Interlaken. There is a restaurant and small convenience store at the top of the summit and ice cream and a cold drink was well deserved by all. After a few hours of exploring , we headed back down into town to enjoy our lunch. There was a vote as to where to eat and McDonalds won. Some of the menu items were familiar to us and some were most evidently inspired but the local culture such as a raclette burger. Switzerland McDonald's got a big stamp of approval from our resident vegetarian. After a little bit more of exploring, we made our way back to KISC with a stop at the CoOp in Kandersteg to grab supplies for dinner. On the menu that night were tin foil dinners! After dinner was eaten, a lost camera retrieved (thank you to the local Kandersteg bus driver for dropping it off at the KISC office) and camp tidied up for the night, we crawled into our tents for a good night's rest as we were heading out to our next tour spot the next day. Our plan was to leave our KISC campsite at 8:15am ...

Day Three

And we did it, we left the next morning on time! We loaded ourselves, with all of our gear, into the bus that stops right outside of KISC and brings us to the train station. This was the tightest we've had to squeeze this entire trip, there was absolutely no room to move on this bus. We made a stop off at the CoOp once again to grab breakfast and met on the train platform for our train. We were smart and left ourselves plenty of time so as to not have to rush. We were on a train once again and made friends with some Australian Scouts who were staying at KISC but headed to their adventure for the day. This day of trains took us from Kandersteg to Spiez to Basel and finally to Frankfurt. We arrived at the main train station and completed about a 15 minute walk to our hotel. Once we settled into our rooms, the focus once again was food. For our first night in Germany, we decided the only appropriate meal would be Italian pizza! That night, we ate our dinner, hung out and went to bed.

Day Four

Our first stop the next morning was the breakfast buffet at the hotel. Okay , our first real stop of the day was the Frankfurt Zoo. We spent the morning exploring the 11 hectare zoo and seeing animals we didn't even know existed, such as the Kirk's Dik -Dik. After a few hours in the zoo, we made our way to the Dialog Museum, obviously stopping for food once again! None of us knew what exactly to expect from the Dialog Museum but all were pleasantly surprised. This is something we would recommend if you are ever in the Frankfurt area. You get to experience the world around you as a person who is visually impaired. Our tour guide for this activity was amazing and kept all of us safe and encouraged us to individually explore different life scenarios people encounter in pitch blackness such as walking through the park, moving around in your own home and crossing a busy street. This activity was not only an absolute blast to do, it also provided time for reflection of the world's implications on the visually impaired. After our eyes had adjusted to the bright world once again, we started to make our way back to our hotel, stopping off at a grocery store for dinner. If you haven't noticed by now, food was a recurring important theme to our trip. Going to grocery stores for meals allowed everyone to pick out what they were in the mood for. That night, many of the Rovers wanted to make themselves sandwiches... and somehow we ended up with 2 loaves of white bread and a thing of pumpernickel bread. In the Scouting spirit, we did our review and we concluded that the pumpernickel bread purchased was NOTHING like we expected and almost a full loaf of white bread followed us to the end of our trip. Our train ride home that night was packed with people wearing feather boa's... we later found out there was a Harry Styles concert happening in Frankfurt that night.

Day Five

The next day's travel was short, we only had a little over a 30 minute train ride from Frankfurt to Mainz, Germany. Therefore, we were able to take it easy and take our time in the morning. We caught the 11:40 train and arrived in Mainz at 12:14pm. At this point, it was hot and what should have been an easy 12 minute walk turned into a 30 minute, sweat dripping struggle for us all. This was the hottest temperature we had experienced so far and it was only getting worse. Once we arrived at camp and set up our tents, a few of us had to go shopping for a few replacement items such as a ground sheet and camera strap. The ones that didn't go stayed back at camp and relaxed in the shade.

Day Six

We woke up the next morning and it wasn't much cooler than the previous day and it was only 9:00am. Today, we ventured into the city of Mainz for some breakfast and then went to the Gutenberg Museum. After exploring the air conditioned museum for a bit and watching a printing press demonstration, we booked our slot to do some moveable tile printing. We split up into teams to explore the Mainz market and find ourselves lunch and then met back up at the print shop for our time slot. Once inside, we dropped off our bags, put on our aprons and began to listen to the printing instructions. We each made our own print and we transported them all the way back to Canada. Once we were done at the museum and with our prints, we all decided it was way too hot at 27° Celsius and found a local swimming pool. We made our way back to our campsite to gather our gear and made it to the public pool 10 minutes down the road. With the temperature and sun being so hot, the pool was packed but the cool water brought all of our bodies back to a more comfortable temperature. We did however, have an incident with a flip flop that we won't mention here... By the time we left the pool, our focus was once again on food. We tried a local restaurant and were thrilled with the food and service. With our bellies full of food and ice cream, we headed back to camp and wrapped up for the night.

Day Seven

This morning we were woken up at 7am by screaming children and chirping budgies. On tap today was a hike to the top of Castle Klopp. First, we took a 30 minute train to Ruedesheim and then made our way to the base of the castle. This activity was perfect for the day as almost everything is closed on Sunday's in Germany and it was ever so slightly cooler than the day before. Everyone made it up on top of the castle and we then headed down to find some food for the day. With most places being closed, we made a quick train stop in the city of Mainz on our way back to the campsite for the grocery store once again. Once we all made it back to our campsite, we once again decided that a trip to the public pool was needed during our free time. Once we were cooled down, we decided the restaurant was so good the night previous that we went again for our last night in Mainz. Here is where our Scouting journey ended and we all created friendships and memories to last a lifetime.

We would like to thank our Rover Crew Advisors, 2nd Russell Group and the local community for all of their support, we could not have completed this adventure without them!