In the summer of 2007, I returned to Europe as a junior leader of Mission Hills, Troop 104. We toured England, Ireland, and Spain. Below are my daily recordings, a slideshow and a few memories from the trip.
At the start of our trip, my brother and I were nicknamed Ackmed and Muhammed because of our beards (or because of our terrorist plot depending on who you asked). Despite our new names and look we had no trouble getting through security on any of our flights around Europe. In England we visited Westminster, walked across tower bridge, and toured the tower of London, all with lots of juggling interspersed. We got around on the tube, and visited St. Pauls, Portabello road, and the Imperial war museum where I saw Lawrence of Arabia's (This dude,T.E. Lawrence, is pretty awesome so that's why I was so excited) gun and personal belongings. We stayed at the Baden Powell hostel while in London and later took a riverboat down the Thames to Greenwich to see the naval museum, and Prime Meridian. Our next stop was Little Abington's where we stayed the night at a British boy scout camp (smaller and closer to the city than ours, but similar in most other ways). Then it was on to the Duxford Aerodrome, and then to Cambridge where I cajoled my way into King's College to visit a friend studying abroad there. We then flew to Dublin, Ireland, and after staying there a night, continued north to Athlone. There we saw locks on the Shannon River, and the ruins of Clonmacnoise. Spain was next on our journey. We stayed in Madrid (in a hostel right above the hotel I stayed in on my first trip there) and I revisited Plaza Mayor and the Crystal palace, getting horchata at the little restaurant where I first had it (I'll admit it wasn't as good as the first time I tried it). Toledo and Segovia were next on our journey. In Toledo we saw a rich mixture of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian architecture and enjoyed browsing the many sword shops in town. We took a train to Segovia where we saw a Roman aqueduct and learned about the history of the area. From there it was back to England were we continued to the World Jamboree. Though not as large (in numbers or area) as the National Scout Jamboree, there were scouts from all around the world joining in a rich mixture of language, culture, and tradition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of scouting. We stayed a little longer in England and visited the British museum, seeing the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian mummies, and many artifacts collected from Britain's Imperial past. Just before the close of my journey I hid a memory card in a subway ventilation shaft near Hyde Park for a friend visiting London later that summer. What a trip!
My daily recordings (The Captain's Log) for the Troop 104 Europe trip in 2007
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