End the of the trip: Back to Newark.
Final entry for this trip.
Before I left the Barrington this morning, and again using my laptop in the pub, with no internet connectivity in my room, I couldn’t help but overhear two pub regulars talking to one another in the background as I was writing. When I say I was glad and thrilled to hear that Pete and Dud live on, this will be understood by anyone from Britain in my generation. Even Bev loved Pete and Dud. Funny!
My flight left at 4:30 for Newark, as I left my car at Alan and Marilyn’s, where Alan picked me up. Although I had planned to stay just tonight and drive home tomorrow, I’ll instead stay in Montclair tomorrow and join everyone for birthday celebrations for Alan, whose birthday was yesterday, and Lissadell, whose birthday is tomorrow, and drive home on Sunday, reunited with my car after two months.
It hardly seems like two months, though. I don’t know what it felt like on the other side, for those whose lives went on as usual, but for me it seems like no time has passed at all.
Actually, this trip has been several trips in one, or a trip in four parts. One part was my trip through England and Wales, with two days in Paris, with Tom. That was excellent. A mostly whirlwind tour, taking in London and Paris, Southwest England, Wales from south to north and then back into Northern England through Liverpool and then the Lake District, before cutting across country to York and finally south, heading back to London. Trip number two was my magnificent trip to Scotland and its dramatic and fabulous highlands with Elana, and our lovely trip to the incredible and remote Faroe Islands, before returning to Edinburgh. The third trip within a trip was my time with Hilary and Claudio in London, which started before Tom arrived and continued after he left and before I joined Elana in Edinburgh. That continued after Elana left, and included the additional time I spent in Scotland after Elana left, when I stayed in Scotland for a few extra days to take the Western Highland train from Glasgow back into the highlands and to Mallaig before returning to Glasgow, and then to London by train.
The final journey within a journey, trip number four, was my fantastic trip to Morocco, from Chefchaouen in the north to Marrakesh in the south, with Meknes, Fez, Casablanca, and Rabat in between, and from Essaouira on the Atlantic coast to the Sahara and the Erg Chebbi dunes at Merzouga. This above all else was the most exciting and exhilarating part of my overall trip, the most like my trip to Japan and Vietnam, visiting a strange land, in this case traveling solo, backpack on my back, and taking local transportation everywhere. It was the most different and the most challenging part of my journey, and the part I was most looking forward to. It was great. It was what I hoped it would be.
All that in almost exactly eight weeks to the day I flew into London from Newark, and yet in the wink of an eye. It feels as though a lot has happened, and my trip with Tom and even Elana does feel distant, but it certainly does not feel as though I’ve been gone for two months, from July 24 to September 18.
No need to say I’m sorry to be returning home and having to deal with my once again everyday life. Nevertheless, I’m fine heading back this weekend, and now figuring out what’s next.
The flight from Heathrow to Newark was smooth and happily uneventful. I enjoyed watching several episodes of Great British Railway Journeys, one of which was the very train journey I took on the Western Highlands Railway to Mallaig , which offered some more context to and history of that rail journey, as well as the geography and history of the region, except from the air, hence showing scenery and views you can never see from inside the train.
They still assert it’s the most spectacular railway journey in the world, but having taken the journey, and back, I can say that’s hyperbole. It most certainly is a beautiful trip, with some beautiful and spectacular scenery, but not the most spectacular in the world, although certainly among them. For instance, it more than has competition from the train journey through the Hoi Ann Pass and along the China Sea in Vietnam or the Durango and Silverton railroad in Colorado.
Anyway, the seven plus hour flight eventually was over, and there was Alan at the airport to meet and greet me. Lovely.
Back at the house, Marilyn, along with Julian and a very pregnant Aleks were there, having come out for tomorrow’s birthday(s) barbeque, and we talked for quite a while. By the time I went tot bed, UK time it was about 4 in the morning, and I was ready for sleep.
And that ended my trip. Back to normal life, at least for a while, until I figure out what’s next.