Up and packed up and breakfasted in time for Richard and Jennie to take us to the train at 10am. Got to the station only to find that the train had been delayed half an hour. Had a coffee while we waited and then the routine of up the lift, across the bridge and down the lift to platform 5. Guess we should be thankful that there is a lift as we have all our gear today including my golf clubs.
Had to store our gear in the guard van as not enough room in the carriage. Arrived at our seats to find that they were occupied by someone else. Apparently, the reserved seat signs had not been put out so it was a matter of first in first served. Found another couple of seats and settled in for the 2½ hour train trip to London. This was the first time that we noticed that the train track runs alongside a canal for some of the way.
We passed through Redding where some of the Benham ancestors came from. I thought we might have had time to do a little search while we were in England but like a lot of other things, we did not get to do, it just didn’t happen. Four months sounded like a long time to be spending over here but, in reality, the time has flown.
We arrived at Paddington and had a Panini and coffee for lunch before catching the Heathrow Express to Terminal 5 (the closest terminal to Heathrow Lodge, where we had booked for the night. While at Paddington we also cashed in our Oyster Card. For some reason, I thought we would get back £15 but it must have been £5 plus what was still on the card – a total of £12.50. It certainly didn't buy our tickets to Heathrow. The very reasonable costs of rail transport we had been paying (I think Exeter to London was only something like £12) meant the £18 each for the ticket to Heathrow was a bit of a shock. The train was very much geared to the traveller though with plenty of room for luggage.
From Terminal 5 we rang the hotel to arrange a transfer (something they do) but we couldn’t have read the fine print as their transfers didn’t start to 6pm. Caught a taxi to the motel - £9. It was nice to be back in an old-style London cab.
After a rest we had a bit of a walk – not very far as the weather is quite cool, followed by dinner at the White Horse Pub – our last English pub meal. I had to have fish and chips, Jill a Chicken curry. Back to the hotel for a bit of a read, and then bed.
