'But our back is to legends and we are coming home. I suppose this is the first taste of it.'
'There is a long road yet,' said Gandalf.
'But it is the last road,' said Bilbo.
It ended far too quickly. Yet the experiences Jen and I have shared seem far too vast to have been created over just a week's time. It feels like we've been here for so much longer when I think back on all we've seen and done.The Portobello Hotel has been wonderful. The atmosphere, the people, and the service have all added so much to this trip and made even our downtime a joy. I can't recommend this place highly enough. When (and it must be 'when', not 'if') we return to London, we will surely also return here.
Almost as soon as I'd finished writing the preceding paragraph, we were informed that the cab we'd ordered to take us to Paddington had arrived. Unfortunately, we'd ordered it to arrive 45 minutes later in order to have time to finish breakfast, have the luggage brought down from our rooms, and get checked out. Evidently the front desk erred on the side of ruthless efficiency. Ah well, at least we'd mostly finished breakfast. And the hotel staff bent over backwards to accommodate us in what became a frenzy of activity to get us out the door and into the taxi.
Our driver was a saint. Not only did he have to wait at the hotel curb as we got everything sorted inside, but once we got to Paddington Station he had to wait again while I found a cash machine, as the lone £10 note in my wallet wasn't going to cut it and he couldn't take card. He was extremely nice about all of it and more than deserved the large tip (which he tried to turn down).
Then it was the express to Heathrow, a flurry of bag checks, security checks, a tram to the auxilliary international terminal, some last minute purchases (mostly bags of sweets to hand out back home), and finally coffee and the wait for boarding call.
And just like that, we're home. Tired (Jen is already fast asleep as I write this) and happy to be home, but already missing it all. What an experience. We talked about our favorite moments as we sat in rush hour 183 traffic, and it was difficult to narrow it down to one, even day by day. It hardly seems real.
I can't wait to see where we go next, what we'll get to see and do. And I can't think of anyone I'd rather do it all with.
Thank you, baby. I love you so very much.
And it is good to be home.
