29thBelfast Venture scouts head to London
On Friday 14thOctober 2011, the 29th Belfast Venture Group,as part of a long running cross community programmebetween themselves and the 37th Belfast, headed to England for cross community weekend trip to London which included a trip to Thorpe Park adventure centre. The programme was supported in part by Castlereagh Council,through their DPP office as part of their youth development programme.
The two groups who had been working together for several months met at the airport andflew together into Heathrow. A 29thand 37thBelfast Venture now takes up the story……………………….
Taking hand luggage is a huge timesaver (and cuts down cost) and in no time at all after landing we headed towards our hotel, our base for the next few days.
Once we arrived we organised ourselves into our respective rooms, settled in and as a large group went for late dinner.
Once the dinner was over,everyone spent the rest of the evening working through the final aspects of the programme and catching up on the gossip. Time flew but by 1.30am only a few die-hards were left.
Saturday
It was an early start, as were dying to get to the theme park and so everyone was up for breakfast by 9, and by 9.30am Maurice, started the ferry runs to Thorpe Park. The word is he was glad to get the 29thgirls out of his car as their incessant gabbling drowned out his satnav and he nearly ended up in the centre of London.
It was Halloween weekend in ThorpePark which meant it stayed opened much longer, and the weather was glorious, everyone was in t-shirts,what a bonus.
Thorpe park has some fantastic adrenalin rides such as STEALTH, COLOSSUS, NEMESIS INFERNO and the famous TIDAL WAVE. We all hung about together and the day went really fast but as 10pm closed in, we knew it was time to head back to the hotel. It had been a fantastic day with loads of great memories.
Once back at the hotel, both groups, which by now had morphed into one, decided to sit in the restaurant to review the programme and assess whether the original objectives had been met.
It was clear that the grouphad really bonded with each other and most people stayed up until about 2 am.
Sunday
Everyone had a well needed lie-in on Sunday morning, making up for the hoursof missed sleep from the night before, it seems that everyone had stayed up half the night rather than go to their beds.
Both groups had to be awake by 10am at the latest to get some breakfast before checking out of their room. After breakfast was served, everyone made their way back to the lobby and we all headed into Londonusing the underground trains. Pat gave us all underground maps and insisted we tell him how to get to our destination near Downing Street. He said it was to teach us but we still believe he didn’t know himself and was using us to get around.
We visited all the major sights including Houses of Parliament, London Eye, Millennium Bridge, Horse-guards Parade and Buckingham Palace. Then the girls headed to Oxford Street for SHOPPING time.
Finally at 4.30 pm it was time to get back on to the underground and make our way to the Stansted airport.
Once we all arrived at the airport, we reflected on the great time we had and then the gate was called & everyone boarded the flight, ready for going back home.
Altogether it was a brilliant programme (although the word on the street was if we are to go away again a bit more shopping next time), and the friendships we developed through the cross community project will last for a very long time. Already we are organising something closer to home for our next outing.
As a youth group we would like to express our thanks to Maurice Johnston, Pat Polin and Lauren Hinds for arranging the programme, putting it all together and taking time out of their busy schedule to go with us. We also appreciate the support given to us through Castlereagh Council’s DPP office.
This is a Joint report from 29th Belfast Venture Scouts and 37thBelfast Explorer section.
The two Generals take it easy for a change.
Buckingham Palace.
On Tower Bridge.
Houses of Parliament.
Death Eaters on Millennium Bridge.
Anna, Lauren and Clare outside Thorpe Park.