[Worldtrippers home] [2025 Crystal-Viking]
We had set aside the entire day for getting ourselves and our rental car back to London, and we’re glad we did. It resulted in a much less stressful day.
Our B&B hostess Zoë delivered breakfast to our room at 9:00 this morning. It was advertised as a continental breakfast, but we ended up with two entire trays full of food! It was after 11:00 when we finally checked out and departed Petersfield.
Fortunately, our GPS system worked fully and flawlessly today. It charted a one-hour and 40-minute drive back to Heathrow airport. We had expected an hour, but there was a lot of road construction and traffic on the M25, the ring road that surrounds London. To avoid traffic, Google Maps took us through a maze of back streets. We never would have found our way back to the Surprice rental office without a navigation system.
Unfortunately, it took another entire hour before we were able to check our car in. There were two clerks and two clients in front of us. They were involved in some complicated processes to check out their cars. We were finally able to turn our key in. Gail is ecstatically relieved not to be behind the wheel anymore.
In addition, Gail had accidentally left her entire wallet here when we first rented our car more than a week ago. The clerk held it in the safe for our return, and Gail got it back with no problem. (On the other hand, Gail also left her raincoat at the home of our last host, Kathy. Gail will hopefully get it back next year, when we sail with Kathy again.)
We are spending our last days in the UK at the home of Suzy-Jane Tanner. She is the artist who illustrates Viking’s childrens books about Finse the dog. We met Suzy-Jane a few years ago on a Viking cruise, and she has become one of our dearest friends. To read about our stay with her last year, click here.
Suzy-Jane gave us detailed instructions to use public transport to get to her place. Once the Surprice shuttle driver dropped us off at Heathrow airport, we took the Elizabeth underground line to Whitehall. (The most difficult part was finding the station in Heathrow. The Elizabeth line is at the railway station, not the underground station.)
From Whitehall, we took the Windrush rail line south to Peckham. We arrived in Peckham at about 4:00 pm, and Suzy-Jane was there to meet us.
Gail spent the afternoon re-doing our final departure arrangements. She had originally booked a flight from Heathrow to Bergen (Norway) with a stopover in Oslo. She has since learned of a direct flight from Gatwick to Bergen, and she booked that instead. This also meant changing our final night’s stay from a Heathrow airport hotel to a Gatwick airport hotel.
We will stay with Suzy-Jane and her husband Ken for the next three nights. We will go into London to see a couple of shows, but the rest of the time we will simply relax and visit.
