Homeward Bound – Day 19 of 2025 England Pilgrimage October 7, 2025October 7, 2025Tuesday 10/7/2025Jennie worked from home today so she was up when we came downstairs, showered and packed. She offered me a cup of chai and I ate some breakfast as we chatted. Steve came down to say goodbye. After many thanks and big hugs, we left their home just before 8:00am.The drive to the airport wasn’t too bad considering it was rush hour time. As always, Gregg felt a huge relief after returning the rental car. Enterprise shuttled us to the airport where we checked in, breezed through security (honestly, we walked right up – no wait – and Heathrow has new security equipment so no shoes off, no computers out, no baggie of liquids out. Streamline!)We hung out in a waiting area until they posted our gate, an hour before leaving. At the gate, they put us onto a bus which drove us to the airplane. And after the state of the art security, we all slogged our carry-on bags up a stairway on the tarmac and into the plane. 🤷Our seats are next to the last row, like before. Thankfully, the seating arrangement is 2-3-2 so there is no one in the row next to us since Virgin’s personal space allotment is rather conservative. Time to shut down computer. More on the other side of the pond.✈We arrived in Dulles 40 minutes early! The flight was good and the crew was nice. And we had our last “tea” of the trip. Jennie – I used my jam and did cream first. 😋Gregg binged a new season of a show he has watched but is now on Paramount. There was just enough time to finish. I listened to a memoir on audio. I have over three hours left. We have Global Entry cards so we made it through border control quickly.Hampton Inn Dulles sent a van for us and took us to the hotel. Our car was still here, intact, though with a lot of pollen/dust.We walked to a nearby TexMex restaurant for dinner. I’m wilting at 7:15. My body thinks it is 12:15am.Tomorrow we catch the auto train to Florida.Thanks for following along with our Pilgrimage in England!Scones with the wind! 2025 England Pilgrimage - Part 2 Travels Uncategorized Great BritainTravels
I say cream first and then jam! I’ve enjoyed reading your posts daily. Glad you had a grand time. What’s the car train? Hugs from Hungary!Reply
Hi, Cathy! We thought of you and Erika often especially along the canals with narrowboats and also passing the closed-but-to-be-renovated Eagle and Child. Jennie remembers meeting you there with us.The Autotrain is an Amtrak train that runs once a day, non-stop, from Lorton, Virginia and Sanford, Florida and vice versa. You can buy a ticket for your car and each passenger. The train either way leaves at 4pm and arrives around 9am. We find the seats in coach roomy and comfortable. There are sleeper cars but they are quite pricey. We used the autotrain in May going north and again this week going south. I like not having the stress of road travel. It is also nice to save mileage on the car.Reply