Switzerland

Our Swiss adventure actually begins in Italy… no we’re not lost, just making the most of our flight to Europe!  Ever heard of “Rome in a day”?  No?  Neither had I, but Scouter Gerry was just crazy enough to pull something together!  After arriving in Rome, Italy after a long flight we will travel to Vatican City, the heart of the Roman Catholic Church and the smallest country in the world.  If you are a Catholic your draw to the Vatican is pretty obvious, but even if you are not, the Vatican houses some of the greatest art and architecture in the world!  Vatican City is WHY you visit Rome – it’s really that cool!

Obviously we can’t leave Rome without seeing the Coliseum, so we’ll work out a visit on our way back to the train station.  Our luxurious… er… our first night sleep in Europe will be sitting upright on a train through the Italian and then Swiss countryside.  Sure, not the best night sleep, but you just visited THREE new countries in a day!

After switching trains with the sunrise in Bern, Switzerland, we’ll transfer to our train to Kandersteg.  After the first World Scout Jamboree, Lord Baden-Powell realized (likely along with every other Scout and Scouter present) that he never wanted the Jamboree to end.  From that moment on it became his dream for there to be a permanent World Scout Jamboree.  A place of adventure, laughter and friendship that Scouts & Guides from all over the world could visit any time of the year and just jump in to the never ending Jamboree.  The Kandersteg International Scout Centre is the realization of that dream.  Kandersteg offers a full international Jamboree experience every single week, all year long!  Talk about the ultimate Scout Camp!!

Given that Kandersteg is in itself a full Jamboree, there is no way to really capture all that in a blog post, so let me direct you to their 2018 program guide (just released) => http://www.kisc.ch/?redirect=getfile.php&cmd[getfile][uid]=14705  Ya, I know, clicking links and reading PDFs is hard work, but seriously, check it out!  The stuff you can do at Kandersteg is UNBELIEVABLE!!

Seeing as you just did all that reading, let me throw a few videos your way to break it up 🙂  First off, what is the Kandersteg International Scout Centre?

Next is a general overview of some of the cool things Kandersteg has to offer:

How about an alpine roller coaster… Scout style!

Or tubing down an Olympic ski jump?

Perhaps a day trip to Bern?

Or Geneva?

Okay, okay, so you get the idea 🙂  Sadly we will, at some point have to leave Kandersteg 🙁  If you’re interested in leaving Kandersteg in the weeee hours of the morning on Friday you will have an opportunity to experience a bit of GERMANY!  You can either spend a day in Europa Park (Germany’s answer to Disney World), or spend the day in Frankfurt, one of the best cities in Germany!

A bit more on Europa Park:

And on on Frankfurt:

REALLY not an easy choice to make!  Regardless though, after a great Friday we’ll end up on the night train to Haarlem to start setting up our camp at the Haarlem Jamborette 🙂


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