The Trip Home

I left Amsterdam at 9pm yesterday and caught the megabus home.  The first part of the strip was ok, I watched a bit of TV and enjoyed the views of the Netherlands at night and then fell asleep until we reached the ferry terminal, at which point we were all rudely awakened.  Unlike the channel tunnel where I could stay on the bus the ferry meant a boring 2+ hours in the middle of the night wandering around, eating and waiting to be able to sleep again.  I didn’t enjoy it and was pleased to be back on the bus and on my way to London.

Once I arrived in London I stocked up on food from Sainsbury’s and then walked to Hyde park and had breakfast at The Serpentine Kitchen Cafe.  This was lovely watching the world go by and early in the morning the cafe was very peaceful, although listening to the very rude/impatient staff dealing with the customers was a little shocking.  I can only hope that the staff on early’s were replaced by people with customer service skills later in the day!  This time in London was a real highlight of the trip home though and I was sad to head back to the dirty and busy Victoria coach station.

The trip from London to Preston was ok, although I felt a little travel sick as we wound our way through the busy London streets, stopping and starting all the way.  Once we were on the motorway I was fine then, I had my picnic lunch and watched the last episodes of series one of It’s Not Easy being Green – great fun.

We arrived early in Preston, but not early enough for the train, which meant an hour wandering around with a rucksack on my back, not fun, especially as my shoulder sprain was really causing me grief.  Finally I was home and I was very pleased to be back, but also very thankful that I made the effort to visit Steph and Amsterdam and what a fun, rewarding and fascinating experience it was.  I was particularly enamoured by the real Amsterdam, away from the tourist hotspots and the residential/development area where Steph lives is really exceptional.  If I go again though I will be reconsidering the timing of the route home and maybe I will consider flying instead.

Debbie and the girls made a real effort to welcome me home and to get the house in order so I didn’t have anything to do, which was much appreciated as I was very tired!  I did however have to sort out an eBay order that I’d messed up before I left and some Amazon returns of cases and other gadgets that didn’t win a place in my heart during the last week of travelling.