Taking the high road!!: 19th August - Our Last Holiday Day.

19^th August

Our last day of our three week holiday. While it’s nice to be going home to family and friends it is sad to be leaving the adventure. Each day different, each day full of new sights, discoveries and towns. (Not cooking !!!)

We were in the queue early in readiness for the 9.30am Windsor Castle opening. We got to wait a while to get in as it was extremely busy. For 20 pounds each you get to explore some of the historical buildings and grounds of the castle along with an audio guide. The audio guide is fantastic as it gives just the right amount of information. This also helps with the volume of people moving through the castle, you don’t want too many people stopped along the way.

Thanks to Wendy who had taken up an excellent front row position, we got to see the changing of the guard from the inside the castle this time. We could hear the band outside as it made its way to the parade ground. The “old” guard meanwhile had formed in readiness for the changeover. The whole ceremony is full of pomp and pageantry. The uniforms looked wonderful along with sharp marching, shiny boots and loud commands from the parade commander.

We then continued our exploration of the Castle. We got to see the State Apartments – parts of this part of the Castle were damaged and destroyed during the 1992 fire. Complete restoration has occurred.

We also saw St. George’s Chapel, Queen Mary’s Doll’s Houses and the final resting place of the Queen Mother and her husband George 6^th. The Castle as you can imagine (and you will have too as photos are not allowed inside any of the buildings) is impressive. Lots of gold embossed walls, grand staircases, tall imposing ceilings, huge portraits, tradition and history. Another must do if you happen to visit this part of Britain.

Back to our very handy hotel for our 2pm check out, then into the car and onto Heathrow airport to return the hire car and move to our terminals.

It was here at the Europcar hire building we first greeted Barry and Wendy three weeks ago and the place we farewelled them. We were onto terminal 2, Barry and Wendy terminal 5. That in itself is an indication of how big the Heathrow airport is.

Part one complete, 12 hours in a small metal cylinder. We have now arrived back in Singapore Airport.
For a semi non sleeper it is not an enjoyable experience. Peter on the other hand has no trouble sleeping in a confined upright position. We have managed to get an earlier flight home from Singapore-hooray!! Only 8 hours flight time to go.

Not only did we get an earlier flight we had 4 seats to ourselves – bliss. So after they feed us it was time to attempt the two person sleeping on four seats experience. Not 100% comfortable, so Peter let me lie across the three seats, I can safely say I got some sleep.

Home again.

We have included a map of our travels and as you can see we got to travel the length and some of the east and west coasts of Great Britian. A wonderful trip shared with wonderful friends.

Thank you for sharing our journey with us along the way.