London & Home

On Tuesday, we flew from Copenhagen to London Stansted, where we picked up a hire car. We stopped at a small village pub for lunch and we found it great to have "pie chips and veg" after all our time on the road. We drove through Ely, to see the cathedral, and Cambridge then on to Seven Oaks. After a brief stop at our B&B, we headed round the M25 to have dinner with John and Gabrielle. It was great to catch up with them.

The next day, Wednesday, we collected James and went for a long drive. We headed for Brighton for a quick look around and then on to Peter's at Goring-by-Sea. From there we headed, by a somewhat round-about route, to Stonehenge. At least we had the opportunity to see the country. That night we had dinner with James and the other volunteers at Chipstead (Edwina, Chloe and Gareth).

We were due to leave on Thursday evening, so we spent the day around Seven Oaks. We had a look around the Chipstead Cheshire Home, meeting residents and staff. We went to nearby Hever Castle (a disappointment - the Castle was significantly remodelled internally in the early 20th century), then Chartwell (Churchill's home) and then to Knole (a magnificant old house near Seven Oaks, which was much better then Hever).

We were set to go home. Out to Heathrow and then - complete shambles and all flights cancelled due strikes at the caterer and at BA. After much delay, we found ourselves a B&B in nearby Hounslow and were very pleased to get there and have a room for the night.

We spent the next day in London. It was an opportunity to have a look around (Harrods, the Victoria & Albert Museum and Notting Hill). Then off to the airport again, more frustration and uncertainty, much stress, but (just) onto a plane asnd home. Disruptions sometimes can't be avoided, but the ability of BA and London Heathrow to communicate (with each other and with their customers) and to organize was really quite terrible - they really should be getting better as apparently they have one of these major disruptions every summer. Interesting that all sorts of strange and dodgy connections by trains, ships, buses and planes across Mongolia, Russia, Lapland and Scandanavia went ontime and exactly to plan and then the last and simplest (a major long-distance flight from London) was a complete mess.

Anyway, after seven weeks, we are back home.