10th Fife (1st Cupar) Scout Group's...

Eurotour 2000 - Day trip to Belgium

During our stay in Wiltz a group of five set off in a hire car to explore the country side.

In search of some spectacular sights we were driven in the direction of Belgium, where we were reliably informed by "The Silver Fox" and Rennie that if we visited a tourist attraction in the center of Belgium called The Grotte De Hahn, we were sure to find some. And well spectacular certainly was the right word.

The Grotte De Hahn is a series of limestone caverns, but before we were to reach the caverns we had to take a shot train ride up to the top of the hill. At the start of the train ride a wee man and his parrot paid us a visit for a chance to have our photos taken. It took us about 15 minutes to reach our destination where we were split up into 2 groups. Dutch speaking or French speaking. Seeing as though no one in the group could speak either Dutch or French fluently we opted for the French as between the five of us, we had all spoken a little at school. The language barrier didn't hold as back long as we listened tentatively to our tour guide as he explained the finer points to the formation of limestone caves. All very interesting, but very chilly. Don't wear shorts and t-shirts when you're walking about under ground with a whole load of damp rocks for 2 hours. Brrrrrr.

Near the end of our tour we got the chance to view a wonderful light display projected on to the stalagmites and stalactites accompanied by some suitable music. After this another display, in which all the lights were shut of and a very brave man ran down from one side of the cave to the other in pitch black with only a blazing torch to show him the way. This was to show us how they used to show people the caves before the invention of electricity. A short boat ride and a cannon blast later we were back outside in the warmth of the Belgian sun. - page written by "Little G."

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