In December 2012 I was lucky to be chosen to be a chaperone on a Destination trip to London sponsored by our council. We had 75 girls apply to the Destination and we were only allowed to take 14 of them. We read all the essays and references and then chose 50 girls to skype or phone for a follow up interview. Finally we looked at all the girls we liked on the map and made sure that we were only picking one from each geographic area. We ended up with a fantastic bunch of girls!
From March till we took our trip in July we talked on a closed Facebook group to plan the trip and to get to know each other. We had some silly prompts like “what 3 Londoners would you invite to a dinner party?” to requests for photos of places to visit and things to do in London. From this brainstorming we came up with an itinerary that worked around the 5 days that Pax Lodge was planning for us in their Journey Through London Program.
Resources for planning a trip in Europe
Here is an inexpensive alternative to hotel rooms, stay in a university B & B! http://www.university-rooms.com/about.aspx
or stay in a church https://www.champing.co.uk/!
Look for scout centers in the cities where you are visiting like Pax Lodge or other world centres: http://www.paxlodge.org and hostels that cater to scouts: http://www.hostels.com/hostels/rome/roma-scout-center/51654
WWOOF is an organization that pairs farms, that could use some manual labor, with people, who are looking for an inexpensive place to stay. This might be a cool way to give service and keep lodging expenses down while fully immersing yourself in the local culture: http://www.wwoof.it/en/
I had read about “mudlarking” or mucking around in the Thames River at low tide to look for archaeological treasures. If you decide to try it this article shows some of the things you might look for: http://londonist.com/2014/05/secrets-of-the-thames-foreshore.php?showpage=1#gallery-1
Our Itinerary
Thursday July 18th
6:20am-2:46pm Delta 2452 Genevieve and I fly to NYC/JFK airport (terminal 2)
Take Air Train to Federal Circle (free) (station C) and pick up the Holiday Inn Express shuttle.
Check in and drop bags in room (4pm check in).
Genevieve and I go into NYC for a fun night! Leave on the hour (see NYC itinerary ideas) Catch hotel shuttle back to Federal Circle to catch subway (or call cab $15)
Airtrain’s Jamaica branch goes to Jamaica station, Queens or the E or J/Z subway lines into Manhattan.
Stay at the Airport Holiday Inn Express.
Friday July 19th
Breakfast at the hotel or get it to go, leave at 6am shuttle.
Group meets at JFK International Airport 6:30am-2:45pm, check them off the list
- Team building and mixing – take bingo game,
- Cards or UNO
- Charge up all your equipment (that you used on the plane coming here)
- Games to learn pounds to dollars amounts
- go over code of conduct – is there anything else they’d like to add? What behaviors you expect—and what consequences exist for not living up to those behaviors
- Plan our Intl programme skit/song/interactive thing..,
- Exchange swaps
- talking about how we’ll handle meds
- Meet your roommate, room contract with roommate?
(neat or not, bedtime observed or not, borrowing or not) - What to do if she is separated from the group, whether by accident or because of a crime
- What to do if she loses something significant: money, passport, luggage
- How to report a crime
- What to do if emergency help is needed
- How to perform basic first-aid procedures
- How to deal with a large crowd (if applicable)
- do a pre-evaluation.
- What three things are you most excited about?
- What three things are you most worried about?
- What three things do you think you’ll miss the least about home?
- My greatest single challenge on this trip will be…
- How do you think this trip will change you?
Eat snacks & lunch
Subway Sandwiches & Starbucks in terminal 7, (we’ll gather here & eat lunch) it had a nice charging station and chairs where we could sit in a group.
Away Café, CIBO market, Dunkin Donuts in terminal 5
Starbucks in terminal 2
Euro Café, Sbarro, JikJi Café, McDonalds, NY hotdog, Panini Express, Starbucks, Tuscany Café, Wok & Roll in terminal 1
Au Bon Pain, Vending Machines in terminal 4 (international flight leaves here)
Eat dinner in the airport after we check in to our International Flight.
Post security Terminal 4 – buffalo wild wings, fuel bar, KFC Express, McDonalds, Panda Express, Panopolis, Sbarro, Stadium Club, Upper Crust, Wok & Roll, Z-Pizza.
Group departs JFK InternationalAirport
Virgin Atlantic flight Terminal # 4 from JFK to LHR 6:20P arrival 6:35A (JUL 20) Great flight! Great airline!
Saturday July 20th
Group Arrives in London 6:35A Terminal 3
Go through customs and get our luggage.
Get some money at the airport ATM (in the tunnel on the way to the tube) or use banks/Post Office near Pax to change cash money.
Go to Pax Lodge and drop luggage
12 Lyndhurst Rd Hampstead, London CityNW3 5PQ, United Kingdom
+44 20 7435 2202
(see Directions to Pax Lodge page it took about 3 hours from when we landed to get through customs and get there and drop off luggage.)
Head out to explore London!
Belize Park Tube to Charing Cross
Walk up the Mall and Admiralty Arch to Trafalgar Square.
St Martin in the Fields (Free lunchtime concert 12:30pm Genesis Sixteen- (a choir of 18-23 year olds) they have nice brass plates available for DIY rubbings near the gift shop.
LUNCH – St. Martins in the Field – Breakfast 8-11am or Lunch 11:30-3pm or tea 2-6 or dinner 5-9pm Crypt Café or Courtyard Café – we ate in Crypt Cafe and it was great. Nice soups and sandwiches in a cool underground vault.
(Or Good British fare in National Gallery Dining Room
Or Yo Sushi – in Soho great revolving sushi bar and robotic drink caddy
St Albans House between Panton and Orange St on Haymarket
57 Haymarket, LondonSW1Y 4QX, United Kingdom.
Or Waggamama – ramen and fried noodles
8 Norris Street between Haymarket and St. Albans St.
(all are recommended and are inexpensive and fun for teens)
See the highlights of the National Gallery (Briana) (Print a full sized poster of your favorite item in the museum from the Sainsbury Wing)
and National Portrait Gallery open 10-6pm (free) highlights tour Sat 11:30 and 2:30 (sketch in the gallery, check out free events a month before http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/free-events/
[We were pooped out at this point. The girls were drooping in the museum and we decided to go out and walk through some fun neighborhoods instead of seeing more museum at this point.]
Walk through Soho, very cute! (with a stop at Doc Marten store for Sa’haara – 17-19 Neal St), Leicester square, Picadilly Circus, Chinatown and Covent Garden Market. Covent Market was PACKED with people, street performers and cute shops. At each place we’d let the girls explore a little and meet back in 30 minutes at a specific spot.
Shopping – Portebello Road best on Saturday antiques, artists, sprawling fun, weekends best, great street food. till 7pm
[5pm Evensong at St. Paul’s Cathedral (Kellie)
One little tip. Next to St Paul’s Cathedral (to the east) is new shopping centre called One New Change. It has a public roof terrace on the 6th floor with an incredible view of St Paul’s, the best view of St Paul’s in London in my opinion. It’s well worth the 20 minute detour.
Fish and Chips at Ye Old Cheshire Cheese Pub 145 Fleet St £8 Fish and chips and other Pub food like bangers & mash or steak and kidney pie or shepherds pie (sit in Dickens’ chair!)
We didn’t get to St. Pauls or Cheshire Cheese this afternoon..we explored Portebello Road and then had dinner in Belsize at Giraffe near Pax Lodge and then crashed early at Pax Lodge.
**At the end of each day, make time to debrief as a group. Besides
reflecting on the day’s happenings, this is the time for adults and girls to check on group interaction (what’s working, what’s not)
and logistics (next day’s plans, meeting time).
Guide girls by asking:
Does anyone have any questions about what we did today?
What was the best thing about today?
What was the biggest challenge today?
What things went well?
Are there any changes we need to make?
Did today live up to your expectations? Why or why not?
Does anyone have an issue she would like to bring up?
How can we perform better as a group?
Did anyone have an experience or see something today that could
translate into a Take Action project?
Is there anything you want to change—attitudes or behaviors—to
make the group more like the environment you want?
Is there anything that we are not saying to each other that we need to be saying?
Sunday July 21
Kathryn’s 17th Birthday! [we taped a big trash bag to her door and filled it with balloons overnight. When she opened the door the balloons flooded the room! Fun! They served her cake at dinner and we all sang.]
We’re free till 3pm
Get some breakfast at Pax Lodge. It comes with lodging. They served cereal, fruit, yogurt, nice breads, coffee and tea, several types of juice and toast with marmalade or jam or marmite.
Tube Belsize tube to Blackfriars
Walk past St. Paul’s Cathedral and across the Millennium Bridge
Globe Theater Tour 9-11:30 every 30 minutes (got tickets for 9am, will pay there) Exhibition Tour (Mallory)
Group Tickets: 4@7.50, 11@11.50, 1@12.50 (we get one adult free) (will take about 1hr 40min)
Explore the Southwark area
Peek in the or Tate Modern (free) 10-10pm on Friday & Saturday
Meal at the Tate: http://www.tate.org.uk/download/file/fid/22889
“Good value meal” OR Meal at Wagamama 1 clink street
(opposite vinopolis) cheap and fab noodle house
Walk past the Clink Prison and The Golden Hinde
And London Bridge
12-6pm Borough’s Market (Rani) is trendy and fun food shopping lunch or snack from carts [but it wasn’t open when we walked through it]
(take tube from Borough to Green Park)
11:30 Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace (Julia – we assigned each girl one of the sites she really wanted to see and she was the official tour guide) yellow and red Royal standard means the queen is there.
Lunch Pizza Express near the British Museum. The thinnest pizza ever! Really good but not too filling. We ate 5 and probably could have eaten 10!
To 
the British Museum (SaHara’ah) give us a highlights tour 1 or 3 hour tour available for download on the museum website: http://www.britishmuseum.org/visiting/planning_your_visit.aspx
[stopped in a nice souvenir shop across from the museum and lots of girls found good souvenirs to buy.]
3pm Pax Lodge Orientation and Welcome Tea with the other 2 troops that were participating too. One troop from Canada, one from New Jersey.
Tour of Pax Lodge Centre as part of the Pax Lodge Challenge
5 pm Leader’s meeting
5:30 pm Dinner
Got Birthday Cake to have after dinner for Katherine!
6:30 London Bus Tour & London Eye –.from Pax Lodge to the Eye as quickly as possible and then get in as much of London as we can before heading back to Pax Lodge – centre of London and try to also explore the City (financial district) all the way down to Tower Bridge. The London Eye was amazing! A Pax tour guide walked us over to Westminster Abbey where we heard Big Ben chime at 9pm. We caught a bus back to Pax and the tour guide talked to us on the way.
Monday July 22
7:30-9am Breakfast & time to prepare packed lunch
9:00 Flag Ceremony including morning reflections, an energizer and day briefing
Event Photograph – Dress in GS Uniform
9:30 WAGGGS Session about dating violence and violence against children. It was very interesting and well done.
11:30 Get to Know London – this may change slightly as London is unpredictable and new exciting places pop up all the time that we may want to take you to; however the general idea is to go on a walk from Girl Guiding UK’s Headquarters (including shop), by Buckingham Palace (not going in), through St James’ Park (stopping for lunch if it’s sunny) and up to
Westminster Abbey (Caitlyn Rose)
/Big Ben/Houses of Parliament (Katherine). (Going into Westminster Abbey is not included in the walk however you will have a couple of hours at the end of this afternoon to do your own thing in that area)
[We took a photo here by a red phone booth with Big Ben in the background. Great photo spot]
# 10 Downing
Horse Guard – we stopped here to take individual photos with the guards on horseback. It was an easy spot to take the photos and small crowd.
Harrods – we took the tube to Harrods and spent the rest of our free time getting ice cream (too expensive and slow service) and then wandering around the store. I loved the food court downstairs!!! Truly amazing! That would have been a fun place to get a box of cupcakes and let them go. Also enjoyed the Egyptian staircase. Girls looked for the most expensive item and enjoyed the pet shop!
5:30 pm Dinner in a traditional London Pub Alberts near Victoria Station (with Pax Lodge) we had good fish and chips and steak and kidney pie choices. It was a good place to bring a group!
7:30 pm Theater Outing – Wicked at the Apollo Theater. [we found out that Kate had her baby during intermission]
Tuesday July 23
(8:30am or 9pm low tide)
Go in early and go Mudlarking! [I didn’t get to go Mudlarking but I found out more information about it. It still sounds like a blast. The Museum of London sponsors a Community Archaeology on London’s River Thames Discovery Programme that would have been really fun to do..next time!]
7:30-9:00 Breakfast and prepare lunches
9:00 Flag Ceremony
9:30 London Challenge – [the girls divided up into groups and took part in the “London Challenges” today. There were several themes to choose from and they got to take the lead and figure out how to get around on the tube and had fun visiting the sights.]
Challenge Themes:
Monopoly – Roll the dice and discover the famous London streets taken straight from the playing board. This will take us to many of the posh shopping areas..
Dream Green – The Kensington/Hyde Park area has so many hidden gems – not least its wide range of museums, including Science, Natural History and V&A museums
Turn Back Time – Get ready to explore Greenwich – the birthplace of time itself
Footsteps of Your Founders –this tour takes you to places around London with Guiding and Scouting history
Pax Lodge Peace Pathway – ‘Pax’ is Latin for ‘Peace’ and London has many monuments along this theme
Challenges Include:
A Pax Lodge drinking bottle
Laminated maps, directions and suggestions and tips to aid your journey around the city.
6pm Evening Meal
7:30 Evening Programme: International Awareness
Learn about Girl Guides and Girl Scouts from around the world and participate in a variety of international activities such as games from different countries and songs in other languages. Come prepared to share! (5 min max, song or skit, bring props or clothing from our different states?)
Wednesday July 24
Take a photo at Abbey Road (best early in the AM before traffic!) St. John’s Wood tube stop on the gray line or we took a bus from Pax (walk SW on Grove End road to Abbey Road #3 is recording studio) [it took us about 90 minutes to get there, take the photos and get back. Leave plenty of time..it’s not far away but there’s traffic to wait for.]
7:30-9am Breakfast & time to prepare packed lunch
9:00 Flag Ceremony including morning reflections, an energizer and day briefing
9:30 Tower of London go straight for the jewels and avoid the long line later in the day. We took the tour after that. We could have spent another several hours here!
1pm [we split the group and half went with me half went with Genevieve]
Boat on the Thames (Deb) A River View of London – We take the boat from London Tower downriver to Greenwich (free) and walk around,
OR Dr. Who Shop and Museum (Genevieve) (Laura) is at Upton Park Station, green or pink line zone 3. Tower is on green line maybe take 58 bus south to the square (open 9:30-5:30 M-Sat)
Shop in the East End afterwards at the Shoreditch High Street Tube Stop
5pm meet at Westminster Abbey for evensong (Caitlyn Rose)
6pm went to Waggamama Noodle house by Victoria for dinner.
[Or Dim Sum (Chinese-style lunch) in Soho at the Chuen Cheng Ku restaurant on Wardour Street (one of the very few with a traditional trolley service)]
to King’s Cross (platform 9 ¾ from Harry Potter between 9 and 10) very fun photo op. The guy there has scarves and lets you use them if you let him take a photo of you too. They sell them at the Harry Potter shop.
Thursday July 25
7:30-9am Breakfast & time to prepare packed lunch
9:00 Flag Ceremony including morning reflections, an energizer and day briefing
9:30 Service Project: We chose from a range of projects. From inter generational work to making a difference within the local environment by pulling invasive species of weeds at Hampstead heath.. Pax arranged the schedule, got supplies and arranged transport.
From cleaning up the park inside Hampstead Heath to playing chess with residents at Waterhouse Close to working alongside corporate volunteers as they commit to making their communities better places, you can really make an impact on the people of London. The girls enjoyed this!!
2:30 Return to Pax Lodge
3pm Patrol Time – Barbeque preparation in committees
6pm Celebrations Barbecue Party! Held in the Pax backyard. Burgers and Mexican food to celebrate the Our Cabana’s birthday.
7:15 pm Candle Walk with a Pax Lodge pin ceremony – reflections and evaluation
8:30 Let the Party continue – led by the event participants. Our girls did a dance.
Friday July 26
6:30 [half the group requested a breakfast in the guest kitchen and left for Harry Potter.]
9:30am Harry PotterWarner Brothers Studio Tour (Debbie) Catch tube at Belize (6 min walk) and go to Euston Station (8 min), walk to train. Catch the 8:24am arrives at 8:43am Euston Station to Watford junction £15.20 round trip (20 minute journey) (8:05 or 8:34 are ok too) [it cost more than we thought to do the train and the studio tour but it was amazing!]
A shuttle bus, operated by Mullany’s Coaches runs from Watford Junction to the Studio Tour, with a journey time of around 15 minutes. Plan to arrive at Watford Junction 45 minutes before the time stated on your ticket, (8:45am) and have your ticket or booking confirmation ready when boarding the shuttle bus. Round trip Ticket: £2 From Watford Junction (bus stop 4) to the Studio Tour. Monday-Friday: Every 15 – 20 minutes from 8.15am until 5.40pm. From the Studio Tour to Watford Junction. Monday – Sunday: Every 20 – 30 minutes from 12.00pm until 9.45pm.
Finally at the end of the day we went Shopping at Camden market – artists, sprawling fun, weekends best, great street food.
***************
The other half of the group:
7:30-9am Breakfast & time to prepare packed lunch for the other half of the group
9:00 Flag Ceremony (optional)
(10am checkout for our new friends)
9-5pm Brick Lane Market (Rani) a microcosm of London’s shifting ethnic patterns, the area around Brick Lane in East London was once associated with poor slums and the scene of the crime for Jack the Ripper murders. Edgy and artistic crowd. Old Truman Brewery at 91 Brick Lane vibrant fashion designers chic boutiques and vintage clothing market.
Take tube (from Algate East to Barbicon) to Museum of London (Amirah) highlights tour (free) 10-6pm, leave by 2pm (walk to St. Paul’s stop go to Bank on red line and change for black line Belsize Stop)
look at Street art : it looks like the Shoreditch tube stop is in the center of a bunch of graffiti, street art and galleries. We can get here from the orange tube line from the hamstead heath stop. http://www.ldngraffiti.co.uk/maps/index.html
Then they too met us at Camden Markets. We gave them 10 pounds to eat dinner at the street food booths and they had a blast shopping for a few hours.
We took the tube back to Belsize.
Pack up and get to sleep!
Saturday July 27
Leave Pax Lodge by 6am Group transfers to Airport for return flight to JFK (2 hours to airport, 90 minutes to get through lines before flight)
Virgin Atlantic flight #3 from LHR to JFK 9:30A arrival 12:15P
Girls stayed at terminal 7 again and I delivered them to the different departure terminals to check in and check bags and go through security.
Group Arrives at JFK
Girls make their connections 12:15 – 9pm
Stay at the Airport Holiday Inn for the night
*****************
Parting Evaluation:
What three things did you enjoy most?
What three things bothered you or were the most difficult?
What three things did you miss from home?
What three things from home did you not miss?
My greatest single challenge was:
How do you think this travel experience changed you?
What, if anything, will you do differently at home?
What, if anything, would you change about the trip?
What did you figure out about teamwork that you can apply to other
situations in your life?
In what other areas of your life can you use the planning and goal-setting
skills you developed?
What has your trip inspired you to do?
I definitely do not want to forget…
• I laughed out loud about…
• Something that brought tears to my eyes was…
• My greatest personal insight was:
• My biggest cultural mistake was…
• My biggest cultural success was…
• I have changed in the following way…
Help them think about a take action project
Do you feel passionately about something you saw or
learned on your travels?
Are there one or two ideas that recur in your journal writing?
Who would like to share some of the issues you are
interested in pursuing?
Are you interested in working on one project or several “mini
team” projects?
Sunday July 28
Genevieve and I fly back leave at 8:25am Delta 857 arrive at 11:04 Delta 857 in San Diego
Get our favorite photo duplicated 5×7 for each of the girls and send them off in the photo frames Genevieve found along with a thank you letter and address list.
Things we didn’t get to do that were on our to do list:
British Library – treasures room and music room
Madame Tussauds? Cheap night tickets??? it was expensive.
Shopping on Oxford Street and around Picadilly Circus, flea markets, Petticoat Lane is thrift stuff and shopping, Borroughs Market for food.
9-5pm Sunday only Brick Lane Market
Or Walking Tour & Shopping (Genevieve) – public guides London walks is best Shakespeare & Dickens walks are good Westminster or village walks, One Direction Tour, Dr. Who walking tour, the plague, the Beatles, Jack the Ripper tour, street art
Fancy tea at the Orangery?
Or Dinner in So Ho north of Piccadilly Indian or Chinese food & street singers Chinatown between Shaftesbury Ave and Leichester Sq
6:30 Victoria & Albert Museum free concert and lectures Friday night??
Kennsington Gardens
Thanks for all this great recap of your London Journey!
Quick question – we are planning to take our troop in the summer of 2015. Are you glad you did the full Pax programme or do you wish you had planned your own adventures and simply included Pax tea, tour, and pinning ceremony as part of the trip? Did you have much interaction with the other Scouts/Guides?
Thanks so much. Yours in Scouting, Dale Glass Troop 3288 Potomac, MD
Dear Dale,
That’s a really good question! We actually had plenty of time to plan our own sight seeing around the Pax Programme and the Pax Programme gave us some really great “Girl Scout Program Values”. It was also really nice to interact with the counselors and other girls who were at Pax (although the troops that were there were from Canada and New Jersey and we were hoping for something more exotic.) I really liked the £5 Challenges that Pax has at the front desk! I listed them in the article above:
Monopoly – Roll the dice and discover the famous London streets taken straight from the playing board. This will take us to many of the posh shopping areas and interesting neighborhoods in London..
Dream Green – The Kensington/Hyde Park area has so many hidden gems – not least its wide range of museums, including Science, Natural History and V&A museums
Turn Back Time – Get ready to explore Greenwich – the birthplace of time itself
Footsteps of Your Founders –this tour takes you to places around London with Guiding and Scouting history
Pax Lodge Peace Pathway – ‘Pax’ is Latin for ‘Peace’ and London has many monuments along this theme. You could do one or two of those on your own. You might even ask if you could purchase them ahead of time so you could look them over with your troop. I think that if I had limited time that I would plan the sight seeing that I wanted to do and just do the pinning and have tea and maybe try to see the Girl Guiding Headquarters. You’ll have time to meet other scouts at those times and at the flag raising in the morning (plan to stay for at least one of those) and at night if you’re staying at Pax. If you have the time then doing community service and doing some of the thoughtful activities really helps you to feel like you’ve done more than just see the sights. Does that make sense? One thing that we didn’t get time to do but that I had read about was to go into the mud of the Thames and help find artifacts with Thames Discovery Program: http://www.thamesdiscovery.org/ I think that would be really cool community service and you’d feel like a treasure hunter!! You might consider seeing if you could fit that into your trip during low tide.
Deb
I’m taking a group of 9 Girl Scouts to Pax Lodge (then to Dublin) in April. We were wondering if there are lockers at Pax Lodge like at Our Cabaña. Do you know? We have one double room, and the room for 7.
Thanks!
Cheryl
I don’t know the answer to that. We had double rooms with 2 twin beds and each room had a door that locked. We didn’t share the rooms with girls who weren’t in our group. I would imagine that your doors will lock too but you could email Pax Lodge to check.
Hi: We are suppose to be heading to PAX this summer for a journey through london program, and this blog has been really helpful. We are also doing the program at Our Chalet, and I have to say that I have been disappointed and frustrated in my dealings with PAX. I spoke with them today and they have not even put together the program for this summer yet. I am trying to plan what we can do and when and they have no information available. We are questioning whether the 450 pounds per person is really worth it vs staying elsewhere and touring on our own. Can you tell me exactly what is included in the program that warrants the additional 300 and some pounds per person? I asked today and the person I spoke with was very vague. We have not made our second payment yet, and are trying to make an informed decision about what to do next. Any information you can provide as to exactly what is included in the summer program package would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I’m glad the site has been helpful! I always like to hear that!
I had the same experience with slow answers from Pax Lodge but in the end I thought they put on a worthwhile program and the girls seemed to really enjoy it. I thought the program had some good Girl Scout values built into it and I liked the opportunity for service and the chance to work with girl guides from other parts of the world. It is also special to stay at one of the world centers…so for those reasons I think I would do it. They hire young women who are girl scouts and girl guides from all over the world to put on the program. I’m sure it’s different every time depending on who is running things each summer. The winter may be a slow season and they may not be up to full staff right now and I’m sure that’s why you’re getting vague answers. Maybe let them know that you aren’t willing to put down any more money till you get a better description of the program.
I really went into exhaustive detail in this posting about what we did each day on our trip. Maybe it wasn’t clear what was provided by Pax Lodge…we went a few days before the program started and stayed a day or two after the program ended. The first part of the program began with tea and an orientation on Sunday at 3pm and it ended with a BBQ on Thursday evening. Maybe you could go back and read through those days. Maybe you could talk to your girls about whether they think those things would be meaningful and fun.
One part that I really liked were these “challenge” booklets that they sold for 5 pounds at the front desk (and the girls got one for free on the day they went exploring.) You could buy some of the books and go off and explore on your own. The girls got to do these programs with some of the Pax Counselors and the leaders had the afternoon off.
Monopoly – Roll the dice and discover the famous London streets taken straight from the playing board. This will take us to many of the posh shopping areas and interesting neighborhoods in London..
Dream Green – The Kensington/Hyde Park area has so many hidden gems – not least its wide range of museums, including Science, Natural History and V&A museums
Turn Back Time – Get ready to explore Greenwich – the birthplace of time itself
Footsteps of Your Founders –this tour takes you to places around London with Guiding and Scouting history
Pax Lodge Peace Pathway – ‘Pax’ is Latin for ‘Peace’ and London has many monuments along this theme.
You could do one or two of those on your own. You might even ask if you could purchase them ahead of time so you could look them over with your troop. I think that if I had limited time or if I didn’t want to do the whole program that I would plan the sight seeing that I wanted to do and just do the pinning and have tea and maybe try to see the Girl Guiding Headquarters with Pax. You’ll have time to meet other scouts at those times and at the flag raising in the morning (plan to stay for at least one of those) and at night if you’re staying at Pax. If you have the time then doing community service and doing some of the thoughtful activities really helps you to feel like you’ve done more than just see the sights.