Switzerland 2014: Our Chalet

The second part of the Switzerland 2014 post to get rewritten, because the photos had broken, is our day trip to Our Chalet. Quick recap: this is a Girlguiding trip; it’s a county adults trip with no selection process other than being the first twelve or so to send a deposit and we went to Switzerland with the intention of staying in Grindelwald. The reason Girlguiding trips so often go to Switzerland is because it’s the closest WAGGGS World Centre that’s not right here in London being so obvious and easy that it’s boring and so naturally, this was what our trip centred on.

We drove down to Switzerland via Metz on Saturday and Sunday, spend the day on Monday in Lauterbrunnen and then went off to Our Chalet on Tuesday, once we’d got our bearings in Switzerland a bit. It’s the done thing on Guide trips to wear uniform – not just uniform but international neckerchiefs and UK flags on the left shoulder. You generally travel in uniform and when you’re not in uniform, you still wear the neckerchief. I have some wonderful photos of me in Switzerland in that red, white and blue neckerchief with yellow and orange tops! But today, because we were going to a World Centre, we all went very smart in our proper uniform.

Me on the edge of a Swiss lake, wearing my red and blue international neckerchief with a bright orange t-shirt. It's quite the combination.

We piled into the minibus for the drive from Lütschental to Adelboden via the woodcarver. The woodcarver actually has no real connection to Our Chalet except that it’s a rite of passage that any trip to Our Chalet, or any Scout trip to Kandersteg, on the other side of the mountain, makes a stop at the woodcarver. Holzschnitzerei Trummer is enough of a walk from Our Chalet than when I went there on the 2019-2020 New Year Break, we did the first part by bus before walking the rest of the way, so it’s not even as if they’re right next door. I don’t know how they came to be associated with the Guide and Scout centres but they’ve clearly embraced it. Every inch of the ceiling is covered in badges from their visitors and they make two special Guiding and Scouting souvenirs – carved wooden woggles with the respective logos on them and carved wooden name badges and if you take them to the man sitting in the corner with the smoking hot pyrography pen, he’ll burn your name into them. My original name badge with my actual name on is getting a bit faded and when I’m brave enough, I’ll have to re-do it. I also have both Brown Owl and Snowy Owl because at the time, I was about to take over as main leader and wasn’t sure which name I was going with, and those are a little clearer.

Inside the wood carver's shop. The ceiling is absolutely covered in Guiding and Scouting badges but you can also see wooden shelves with lots of carved things - owls, cats, cows etc and some massive clocks and chopping boards hanging from the ceiling which are pyrographed rather than carved.

But this was my first visit. So naturally, we all got our woggles and name badges and I untied the knot in my international neckerchief to thread the woggle on. I don’t use it to hold it closed – that’s what a woggle is, by the way. Non-Guiding and Scouting people either think it’s a pool noodle or they think “it sounds rude”. It’s just a loop of either leather or cord (or wood if you’ve been to Adelboden) that holds a neckerchief together. I wear my international neckerchief with a friendship knot but I like to have the Our Chalet woggle on it.

My red international neckerchief with blue and white borders, lying on my desk with a small carved wooden Trefoil-shaped badge lying on it. The neckerchief has a wooden woggle like an overgrown bead threaded onto it. Both have my name burned into them.

You can linger in the woodcarver’s for hours – they make knives and bookmarks and pepper mills and little animals (I bought a cow) and chairs and Christmas decorations and boxes and and and… everything you can imagine that can be made out of wood, basically. It’s a very small shop, though, and once you’ve bought whatever you’re going to buy, you should go outside, appreciate the view and take a look at the larger carved objects outside, like massive chairs and seven-foot bears.

An idyllic Swiss view from right outside the wood carver's shop - rolling green foothills vanishing into the non-idyllic very low clouds.

Then it was time to run up to Our Chalet. This wasn’t my first visit, I made a quick trip there while I was living in Switzerland during my year abroad and that time, I’d gone on the bus and walked up from the bus stop. If you remember, 30-odd steps to our own chalet had been beyond unreasonable for this particular group, so the minibus took us right up to the end of Our Chalet’s drive and that was more than enough. I paused for a selfie with the sign at the entrance (no doubt made by Trummer too) and then we went up to say hello.

A selfie at the sign at the entrance to Our Chalet. The sign is huge and it has a sloping chalet-style roof over it. It's not the best picture of me though.

First things first, we had a Pinning Ceremony. All World Centres do this, it’s an opt-in that’s nonetheless always included in any event at any World Centre and it celebrates the visitors and volunteers from around the world, often with speeches and a song and a solemn vow and then you’re presented with that World Centre’s pin. These are special things only for people who’ve actually been there – you can’t buy them or give them away and you take a vow to keep it always as a memory of your time at that World Centre. It’s not very easy to get good pictures of all of them but I think they’re all quite different and some Guides make it a lifelong mission to collect all five. I’m up to two. Pax Lodge has a very shiny circular one about the size of a penny with a little teal picture of the Pax Lodge logo on. Our Chalet’s is larger, almost rectangular, made of pewter and has the Chalet embossed on it. The staff had brought out a little log in which flags were stuck to represent all nationalities present at that particular ceremony (volunteers and staff from the USA, Australia, Chile, Finland, Spain and Slovakia) and we had a group photo with it and the mountain view behind us.

Our group gathered around the flagpole after the Pinning Ceremony. Behind us is Adelboden spread around the rolling green hills and in front of us is a small table with a log on it. In the log are flags representing all staff and visitors at Our Chalet.

Then we had a tour, which started downstairs in Spycher, which is the bigger, more modern chalet, which has the official bomb shelter/archive room, equipment storage rooms, meeting rooms and offices. This is where you’ll find the big wall covered in visitor badges and the map where visitors pin their home location. Spycher is also where Skippy, Our Chalet’s cat, was hanging out today and it’s where the shop is. I bought an Our Chalet t-shirt and in my wisdom, chose the bright orange version, which, as I said, looks amazing with the international neckerchief! I did not buy the navy hoodie with the rough hems but when I went back in 2019, I did and that’s not a decision I have ever ever regretted.

After Spycher, we went through to the original Chalet which is an absolute treasure trove. It’s got a laundry on the ground floor and a little chill-out room with some old-fashioned ski equipment decorating the walls. The main features of the first floor is the traditional-style dining room, which has WAGGGS plates and wooden tables and benches and a massive open fireplace. At one end, it’s got a balcony which has been closed in with windows so you can sit and enjoy the views and at the other end is the American Room, I think, which was furnished by the American Girl Scouts back when it opened, their Helen Storrow (founder and donor of Our Chalet) and Juliet Low (founder of American Girl Scouts) being key players in the early days of Our Chalet. Then there’s the WAGGGS room, which I think is also upstairs, which used to be an office and is now another small relaxing space, home to all the neckerchiefs donated by visitors, the information boards about WAGGGS around the world and the Golden Book, which is the wood-covered (hi again Trummer) book of all the important documents from Our Chalet’s history. Copies of them, I should say. The originals are in the bomb shelter over in Spycher. Upstairs is the accommodation, mostly with shared bathrooms and not open to casual visitors like us.

A massive and obviously-used open fireplace, with wooden candles carved from actual branches and a big copper cauldron hanging from a wooden arm over where the fire would be.

Outside there’s more still – there’s the Squirrel House, which is a very traditional and rustic mini chalet where, if I remember rightly, the tea party was held to celebrate the opening and is now a little self-contained chalet for up to 16 people, with bunk beds downstairs and floor mattresses upstairs and its own kitchen and there’s Baby Chalet, at the other end of the grounds, which was Helen Storrow’s private miniature chalet which sleeps up to 3 people in civilised single beds and even has a bath. There’s also a campsite with a camp house which has a shared kitchen and shelter for use in really bad weather – I suspect it doesn’t hold half the people the campsite could.

The view out the back of the Spycher, with the edge of the big chalet on the right and a smaller chalet across the garden.

One last thing before we leave: it’s traditional to take a group photo on the stairs out the back of the original Chalet. These days, there’s a wooden wall against the old stone stairs so that no one falls straight off the stairs an entire storey up. In 2014, there wasn’t and we were just careful. I’m glad we have the picture but I wish one had been taken from a bit further away to get the impression of being on the iconic Our Chalet steps instead of some random steps.

The group lined up on the stone steps out the back of the Main Chalet - we're all in uniform and yet between leader uniform and Trefoil uniform, we're all wearing something totally different.

And that was it! That’s a typical day trip for day visitors – a Pinning Ceremony, a tour, a cup of tea maybe, and a photo. When I wrote the original blog post, the one with all the broken photos, I said that I’d like to stay for an entire event, staying at Our Chalet rather than somewhere cheaper in the Oberland region and do activities and then along came the New Year Break and I got all the wishes!

The main chalet at sunset in the snow during the New Year Break 2019-2020. The entire photo is tinted pink by the spectacular sky.

It’s always special to get to visit a World Centre, even for a day – they’re very welcoming and it’s fun to look through all the little messages in the form of badges, neckerchiefs and swaps from the Guides and Girl Scouts from all over the world who’ve come here. Our Chalet even has its own challenge badge, although you’ll probably need longer than a day visit to complete it.