Going home

So, I totally forgot to write about the last leg of our journey. On Thursday we made our way down from York to Luton. We started our trip after rush hour, so the journey was blissfully uneventful with very little traffic. The only unpleasant surprise was that we couldn't find a gas station when we reached Luton Airport, so we couldn't top off the car before handing it in. Well, we could have, but then we would have to go back and find one. We didn't feel like doing that, so we handed in our car (somewhat anxiously, because they always seem to try to find fault with something), but everything was in order. 

Next up was trying to get to the hotel. There was a shuttle bus that could take us part of the way. The driver would let us know where we should get off, but he forgot to tell us, so we ended up at the airport and staying on the bus to get off on the return trip to the car park. Oh well, it saved us a long walk, so that's okay. We could check in straight away and had a room with a view of the runway. It's pretty impressive to see all those planes take off and land, it is very tightly coordinated. After travelling for 2 weeks, we were a bit travel weary. Before handing in the car, we'd already decided on staying in at the hotel and grab a bite to eat there. This way we could rest up a bit and reflect on our two weeks before taking the train back. 

On Friday we took a taxi to the train station so that we didn't have to walk there. It was totally worth the 5 pounds we paid (Uber was 4 times that by the way, totally ridiculous). From there we took the train to London St. Pancras. The train was delayed and the check-in of Eurostar had been moved backward, so we kind of felt some stress (the earlier check-in might have been because the terrorism threat level had gone up after a stabbing of 2 Jewish men in the London area a few days earlier). We grabbed some meal deals from the M&S store at the station, walked to the check-in. For a change we could just walk through, go through security and customs and sit down to wait for boarding. Basically, we got off the train from Luton and sat down in the Eurostar waiting area within 20 minutes. A new record! Usually we\ve had to wait for 20 minutes before we were even allowed to get in line. Totally amazing. 

The Eurostar also had a bit of a delay, so we almost missed our first train option back to Zwolle, but we made it in the nick of time. Seconds after we got on, the doors closed. The downside was that the train was really full, so we had to stand. In Almere we both found seats and in Lelystad we could sit together again. And then we arrived in Zwolle and it was time to say goodbye. I'm not good at saying goodbye to be honest. So if it was a bit awkward for you Sophie, I'm sorry. Before saying goodbye, we'd concluded that, although going with a classmate might have been a bit of a gamble, the gamble totally payed off. We had a good time: no fights, no disagreements. Truly a once in a lifetime experience. Thank you for the great company Sophie!