D day. Sound of distant parade drums reminds us it's a holiday. Finish up. Boxes to the storage area on the mezzanine, already full of the cases and crates left by the long stay Norwegians. Cab to the airport, unexpectedly supplied by Mr Andreas. Usually we take the bus.
Plane is nearly an hour late leaving and doesn't make it up en route. Have calculated that it will take an hour to get from landing to tube, more with any bad luck at all. So when we land at 23:10 knowing that the last underground train to central London will leave at 23:42, the assumption is that it is hopeless. Time to deplane and time to reach the immigration queue. And we're not EU citizens, so no favours in the general queue. But there is no queue, no one ahead of us at all. So we're through immediately and down to the baggage claims, where there is almost no wait at the carousel. So, with ten minutes left we head for the tube station. Lifts don't seem to be functioning so it's escalators. As we reach the bottom an underground employee says last train to central London and we're holding it. And indeed as we get on the man blows the whistle and we're off. Forty-five minutes to South Kensington station. Long flight of stairs to the Circle platform and a young man very kindly takes my suitcase the last few steps, enabling us to catch the train just arriving - the last train to Bayswater. As we exit Bayswater Station the doors are closed behind us. It's twenty to one but we've done it with nearly impossible luck in timing. Ten minutes later we're at the Baron and Nick lets us in. We're home.
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