Special to the Herald
(From the issue of 9/4/03)

Msgr. James McMurtrie, pastor of St. Agnes Parish in Arlington, sent his best wishes with 22 scouts and leaders of Boy Scout Troop 111 as they prepared to leave for a three-week excursion to Europe.

The boy scouts stayed on the HMS Amory, a Docklands Scout project that preserves and maintains the ship on the Thames River in London, England. The ship was their base camp as they visited Buckingham Palace, the "London Eye" (the highest place in London) and the Greenwich Meridian.

After three days, they went to Kandersteg, Switzerland, the international scout center, where they stayed for 15 days. While staying one hour from Bern, their activities included glacier and ice climbing workshops, an overnight trip to the Kanderfirn glacier, day-trips to Trummelbach Falls and the city of Interlaken, a 50-mile hike through the Alps, including a trip to Jungfraujoch, Top of Europe, at an elevation of 11,677 feet. They went rafting, canyoneering, mountain biking, hydrospeeding and on chocolate and cheese outings.

The troop interacted with scouts from North Carolina and nearly 30 countries, including Thailand, England, Wales, Germany, Norway, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland.