Last 24 hours May 28-29

We decided that our hotel, with it's views and pleasant surroundings, was more compelling than chasing down one more castle or ruin.  So, after a full English breakfast, we simply decided to stay put, till around 2pm.  We had, through Priceline ($100, 4*, again a great deal) made great hotel reservations at Heathrow and knew it would take us around 5 hours to drive down.  We planned some time to repack for the airport, but had no reason to rush, so we simply enjoyed views and read.

Ultimately though, we did need to get on the road.  And, we made great time.  While spending over $100 on diesel fuel!  Parenthetically, there seems to be an imbalance between US and European fuel prices.  Historically, theirs have been 4 times ours, but this time it was only 2x.  We're not sure if ours have risen to distort things, or theirs haven't kept pace.  Be interesting to know.

On the drive down, we made great time.  The GPS loyally kept us on track.  And as we went, we realized that we did have an hour or two to spare.  And the GPS confirmed that a side trip to Oxford would only cost us 15 minutes additional driving time.  So, we stopped there.  What a gorgeous college town!  I've always been (excessively) proud of my alma mater, William & Mary.  Oxford puts it to shame.  And, it's only an hour outside of London.  So, something we now have back of mind is to come back some summer and take a class at Oxford.  Also, one last meal at Pret a Manger (they're everywhere!)

Back on the road.  Check in.  Repack.  Asleep.  Next morning turn in the car and then T5 at Heathrow.

The flight back seemed short.  Possibly a combination of Kir Royals and Drambuie, but I'll take it!  The drive from LAX to our house, however, took nearly 2 hours.  Or, about 2x what it should have.

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Footnote.  Two weeks into the trip, while in London, I'd checked my home cell phone's voicemail to find a message from the TSA.  They'd found the toilet articles that I'd (they'd caused me to) left behind.  They told me that my stuff would be destroyed in 30 days.  I begged that I wouldn't be back for 42 days and they relented.  So, the day after we got back, I drove down to LAX and picked up my stuff.  One more editorial comment here.  Maxine lost her eyeglasses on a bus in London and they have an entire office of people there to find and return things to you.  At LAX, as big as it is, they have (seriously here) a single file cabinet with stuff to return.  Somehow it just doesn't seem like the TSA cares as much to return things as London Transport does...