Back in April five 5 leaders and eight Explorer Scouts travelled to London to take part in the Monopoly Run, some general sight seeing and visit the West End to see a show, a thoroughly packed weekend that was enjoyed by all.
Departing Exmouth on Friday evening we travelled to London by train and after arriving at Paddington Train station we took a short taxi ride to our hostel that would be home for the next couple of days. After settling into our rooms we headed out for a short walk around the nearby area where we visited Leicester Square and the M&M store. We found every M&M imaginable! You could make you own bag of M&M’s picking the colours and combinations you wanted, Josh went a little mad and bought a very large bag. Heading back to the hostel we bumped into one of the Shaun the Sheep sculptures that were currently on display (not out last for the weekend) in London before having pizza and heading to bed.
Saturday morning was an early start to get the tube over to Scout Park where we would take part in the Monopoly Run, an event organised by local scout in London where in teams we would explorer London taking photos along the way. We were set specific tasks to collect sets along the Monopoly board with bonus points awarded for “Chance” and “Community Chest”. Our teams came 46th and 107th out of 112 teams and we got to see lots of the sights of London from the House of Parliament to Buckingham Palace. It was a great day if a little tiring but there was no time to stop just yet! We headed back to the hostel to get changed and get ready to head to the West End to see Billy Elliott. We all really enjoyed the show and afterwards we headed to nearby China Town with Mitch leading the way. We found a restaurant for dinner and ordered our food, it was great to try everyone else’s dishes and try something new. Thoroughly stuffed we headed back to the hostel for a well earned rest and bed.
On Sunday we had a chance for a bit of a lie in after the long day on Saturday and after breakfast we were given options of what we would like to do for the day before having to get the train home. Some of us headed to the Imperial War museum while others went to visit the London Dungeon, after a quick stop for lunch both groups met back up before heading to Waterloo to catch the train home.
A great weekend – Check out the photo’s available here.