Woke up feeling a mixture of sadness about the trip coming to an end and excitement about getting home to the family. We'd had a bit of a stocktake over the past few days to see if there was anything that we'd missed doing that we had on our 'must do' itinery. Jacs still had a special chocolate shop that she wanted to see, which we thought we'd be able to easily fit in, along with a spot of lunch before needing to head back to the flat to pack, have a shower and get out to the airport for the evening.
Last tube trip into the city- this time to Chelsea on the hunt for chocolates. We walked the entire length of the street- only stopping to be distracted in one of the lovely shops along the way. Sorry Alice- I know how much you love your crocs, but the fleecy lined ones and the boots were a bit outside budget and suitcase space by this stage! Correction to the above- Jacqui and I walked but poor Wen hobbled for a bit after having her foot stepped on coming up out of the station. Not the first time this had happened to her this week- previously on the tube itself.
Eventually made it to the second last shop, just when we thought we may have missed something and Jacqui successfully completed all delicious chocolate related shopping. Wendy had previously told us of an American style restaurant "the Big Easy' where she had been for a work dinner and which offered delights such as whole lobsters with free bib, and lo and behold it was there, just across the street. Not exactly the quintessential English meal to finish our stay here- but one look at the menu and it was decided.
We couldn't go past the offer of entree, main and a margarita for under 10 pounds and so we feasted on mussels, buffolo wings, caesar salad, ribs, burgers and jumbo shrimp. We just looked the waiter in the eye and laughed when he offered us the dessert menu. We can't imagine they ever sell any desserts there as their patrons roll themselves out the door.
Bus, tube and walked back to Wendy's for the final time- where there was just time to shower, finish the packing and hop in the taxi to the overland train station to get to the airport. I wasn't making the mistake of carrying my coat through 2 plane trips again, so did a quick repack on the airport floor. We then got involved in the most painful airport experience of the trip by using the 'voluntary' self service check in service, which was the only way that we could check in. Was the slowest, most frustrating, airline staff required to assist the process way of checking in ever! Would have been significantly less time consuming and confusing for the staff to just do the check ins.
Went upstairs and grabbed a coffee but were increasingly concerned about the length of the line for security and customs. It was insanely long, and there was no kind of system for regulating it, so it wound back on itself numbers of times. Apparently Friday night is the busiest night at Heathrow and they had some machines down. Wendy rang their friend who is head of security at Heathrow, but alas he wasn't at work, so join up with the line we did. Waited for a good hour or so and then as always happens we were suddenly at the front and hadn't really said our goodbyes. A hurried goodbye and one last photo opportunity and we were gone. Poor Jacs set off the metal detector and so had to have a full search done(along with lots of others), though I had sensibly decided not to wear my metal detector setting off boots this time.
A short wait whike we waited for a boarding gate, a short wait at the gate and then on the plane and on the way home.
