Trip to

We went to London on 2nd to the 3rd December for the heritage project so we decided to tell you about our visit to Pax Lodge. As many of you may know, it is one of the four world centres and was the second one to be built. It was named Pax Lodge as it means peace, and lodge is because we visit it! Pax Lodge is full of amazing things from people all over the world who have come to visit. If you have not been you should go and visit, it is a great friendly place to go.

Leanne and Evie

I had an amazing experience at Pax Lodge and ICANDO in London. I earnt so much, but because all of the information was so interesting, really enjoyed it. We started off he long day on a 3 hour coach ride to Pax Lodge, a world guide centre on which we found out lots of different facts; for example, it is 1 of 4 international centres, the others are in Mexico, Switzerland and India. We were split into groups and shown around by various tour guides who explained a lot about it. We then travelled to speak to the CHQ archivist, who told us all about what guides did in the war and we found out just how much work they had to do and how important guiding was to them. We then dumped our stuff where we were going to be sleeping and then we went to the CHQ shop (which I am sure everyone enjoyed!). After that we went out to have dinner, we split into groups and chose where we were to dine. Once we were all stuffed full of food, we were taken on a tour of London to burn off the calories! We saw all the sights including the Houses of Parliaments, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. We even spoke to a policeman at Buckingham Palace and one girl got his autograph! When we arrived back at ICANDO, a nice woman told us about what we could do to keep ourselves amused and then we set up camp for the night wherever we wanted! 11'o'clock was lights out and most people were so tired from our long day that everyone fell straight to sleep. It was up at 8.30am to have breakfast courtesy of ICANDO, we then had to be on the coach at 9.30 so we were ready for our great time at the Imperial War Museum, where they were holding an exhibition about children in the war. There was a little about one woman who was a guide during the war and what she did to help. There were also lots of other exhibitions for us to explore. We then ate lunch in the picnic room and then we began the long journey home. I really enjoyed this trip and I feel lucky to have been able to have experienced it and I can’t wait for more Senior Section Heritage Weekends! The purpose of the trip was to learn about girl guides in the wars and I think we learned plenty of stuff and much, much more.

We found evidence of Guiding in The Children's War Exhibition

... and enjoyed trying out the old desks and uniforms, to say nothing of surveying the scene from a submarine!

What an amazing backdrop!