Day 15: Sunday, September 22

Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square

Time to go home!!

Well Britain, it’s been a slice but, sadly, it is now time to fly back to our lives on the other side of the Atlantic – back to our jobs (well, in my case anyway), pets, friends and family.

We both set our phone alarms for 7:00AM and they came screaming to life right on time (my Apple Watch included). We showered and finished packing the little bit that was remaining, then checked out of the Harlingford Hotel. It was pouring rain, so we stayed on the covered steps of the Harlingford’s entrance while I placed an order for an Uber pickup. It was only a four-minute wait until our Uber driver arrived at 8:30 – nice fellow, but he certainly kept conversation to a minimum during the drive to Paddington Station.

After a foggy drive through central London, we reached Paddington Station at 8:45:

From street level we descended what felt like three miles of stairs (exacerbated by my wrecked knee), and boarded the Heathrow Express bound for Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport. We were the only ones on the train and the journey to Heathrow sped by pleasantly:

Arriving at Heathrow Airport

At 9:20 we arrived at London Heathrow:

Some very helpful staff assisted us immediately – and very pleasantly – at the automated kiosks (checking in, printing and attaching bag tags, boarding passes, etc.) without having been asked. Wonderful service!

<RANT ALERT>
You would NEVER, EVER get this level of service at Toronto’s Pearson International. Whenever I arrive at Pearson International from Europe, it makes me ashamed to be a Torontonian and embarrassed to be Canadian. This calamity of an airport is the first thing visitors from other countries see when they land in our city. Pearson is just plain awful and so embarrassing compared to the experience at pretty much any European or British airport. Last year the media christened Pearson the “worst airport in the world”… no surprise there.
<RANT OVER>

We sent our checked bags through the conveyor and proceeded to Security. It was an EXTREMELY time-intensive process. In general, a very intense security screening – of all the trips I’ve ever taken, I’d have to say this security screening was the most intensive, thorough and lengthy one ever experienced. I remember seeing signs at Heathrow thanking travellers for their patience while Security engaged a new security method, but it didn’t say what this new procedure was.

Naturally, both my bags got flagged as suspicious from the scan, and Security had to paw through them – my bad: it turns out I had left Purell in one of the pouches and the scan caught that. In true polite Canadian fashion I embarrassingly apologized to the Security Control Agent saying, I know better than this – and it’s true, I do!. For the first time ever we did not have to remove laptops, CPAPs, electronics, etc. for the check, so that was nice (unique to this so-called new security process, perhaps?).

About 45 minutes later we got through Security, then sought out a breakfast place as we hadn’t yet eaten anything. At about 10:30 we found a table at Jones The Grocer and each of us had a MASSIVE (and quite delicious) Full English Breakfast…. Ahhh, the Full English… absolutely  love it. I’d rather not say how much we paid for this overpriced (but delicious) breakfast at one of the world’s biggest airports – I’ll leave it to your imagination.

Boarding Time

Our plane boarding was posted as being at Gate B41, so we finished up breakfast and made our way there. The journey to the boarding gate was a trip within itself. It took another 30 minutes to reach said gate in which we had to take several escalators, two lifts and multiple people-movers.

By the time we reached the gate our flight was already boarding, so we got into the Zone 3 line and began the boarding process. We settled in to our aisle and middle seats in the Economy section (Vince was in the dreaded middle seat of three during this trip home).

It was a very full flight: Air Canada, flight #855, seats 27D and 27E. We pushed back exactly on time – 12:05PM local time – but it took another 25 minutes to taxi out and get takeoff clearance. We finally lifted off, meeting the extremely foggy London skies directly after takeoff… farewell magical London… <sigh>

The food offered on the flight was the usual fare, begging the eternal Flight Attendant question: would you like the pasta or the chicken? Both Vince and I opted for the pasta. To be fair the pasta dish was not half-bad; I was barely hungry, though, as the Full English from earlier was still very much with me. With the meal having been dispensed, the Flight Attendants next made the rounds with the drinks cart: Air Canada now serves free wine and alcohol with the meal in Economy class – nice touch, AC. Vince opted for the red wine, then coffee and tea were served.

It was a smooth flight in general, and mostly uneventful (which is always a good thing). About four hours into the trip the usual pretzels and complimentary beverages were served. About an hour out of Toronto a chicken wrap was distributed.

Home!

We landed at Toronto’s Pearson International at 2:16PM local time. We actually arrived 34 minutes earlier than the scheduled 2:50PM. The plane’s Captain reported that the winds had also favoured our direction. When we deplaned and stepped into the bridge from the jet, the Toronto humidity hit us like a ton of bricks (apparently we had missed a southern Ontario heatwave while away).

We headed to Canadian Customs/Border Control. It was all automated now and we passed through without a hitch (which is highly unusual for the dysfunctional mess known as Pearson International). From there we proceeded to the Baggage Claim to pick up our bags from the carousel.

Once we had collected our bags I switched my phone’s local cellular service back on so I could receive texts from our Toronto Airport Limousine driver. I had pre-arranged an airport pickup before leaving Toronto, so I just had to tell the driver when we landed and he would be waiting to retrieve us. After some confusion (Door E instead of A, outer passenger circle, not inner passenger circle, etc.) we finally connected with our driver, who drove us home without incident.

We arrived home about 4:30PM. Everything was OK at the condo – it was just *really* hot and stuffy so the first thing I did was switch on the AC. We switched on the water, electronics, servers and rechargeable items, then went up to our neighbours place to pick up our two fur-babies. The dogs were so happy to see us! They came barrelling out to greet us and made a huge fuss… what a great welcome home!

Returning to the condo with the pups we unpacked for a while, let everyone know we were back safe and sound, then fed the dogs and took them out. The rest of the evening was spent unpacking and resting up. We had a General Tso Chicken dinner in the freezer, so we thawed that and had a little to eat – our appetite was off, as it always is on a travel day. We were jet lagged but forced ourselves to stay up until 9:00PM.

And… well, that’s about it. It was a great trip despite my knee injuries and Vince’s Bronte-like coughing and hacking.

Thank you, England… it was great! We’ll see you again sometime soon.

Today’s step count: 6,216