Worthing Cissbury Division Rangers Breakaway to Belgium!

Written by Worthing Cissbury Division Rangers

Day 1

We met too early at Forest Road to start our travel to Ebbsfleet International station - 5.45am!

We were all a bit sleepy and slothish, but arrived at the station at 7.30am. We went through security and passport control both in the British and French sectors. Then we had a 50 minute delay, which allowed us to have a leisurely (and healthy?) breakfast of... sweets! The leaders took the opportunity to talk to the other groups also travelling to Belgium for the event. We played games until it was time to board the train.

When we arrived, Emma, Karen and Ayesha went to look for the local Lidl but discovered it had closed down, so the local corner shop was where we bought some 'milk' - only to discover it was a yogurt drink! Not so good for putting in tea. While there we also bought water to ensure we kept hydrated.

Overall, the apartment was okay. As it was not expensive, it was value for money!

From here, we travelled as brave explorers into the great unknown to the World Thinking Day event being held in a hotel in the centre of Brussels. We received a lot of really good advice about leadership, and awkwardly socialised with people. Afterwards, we had a wander through the touristy area of Brussels and bought some chocolate - yum!

We found the Hard Rock Cafe 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 ready to rest our weary heads on our pillows and restore our energies ready for the wide game tomorrow.

Day 2

After a bad night's sleep, some of us looked like zombies today - slowly walking around half dead!

Anyway, we got up, washed and had breakfast and walked to the start of the LaSER quest at the Grand Palace Cathedral where all the other Ranger teams were meeting. A group photo was taken, we were given our activity packs 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 sort of order so we weren't going back and forth across the city. We then started the activities, which can be seen on our Instagram account and the hashtag #breakawaytobelgium.

This is just a flavour of what we got up to - not forgetting our mascot, Bel(gium)!

Day 3 - Bruges

We were able to have a lay-in this morning and have a proper relax, while ecstatic for our day ahead in Bruges.

We got ready as usual, but this time packed our badges and suitcases ready to carry to the train station. We got two lockers and put all our unneeded and heavy baggage in - for €11, it was worth every cent!

Then we travelled to Bruges by train. We walked from the station to the Grand Market, past a beautiful canal, and queued to go up the Belfry - 366 steps to the top for an amazing view. Shirley used this time to research the best chocolate shops, as well as times for the return to train to Brussels. Once down from the Belfry, we had lunch in the square.

Afterwards, we tried and failed to find the Chocolate Museum (the buildings were too high and the wi-fi not strong enough!), but we did find the two best chocolate shops in Belgium, Chocolate Line and Dumon.

Finally, it was time to get to the station for our return journey to Brussels. We collected our luggage, went through check-in and passport control to await our train to Ebbsfleet. After the 1.5 hour journey home, we found the cars where we left them (thank goodness!) and Shirley and Karen were able to whisk us back to Worthing - the Rangers slept through this part!

This was an amazing adventure - thank you to everyone who helped.

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