Day 23

This is our last flight on the First Choice jet. I've been completely spoiled. The crew has been so nice, and so accommodating, and the seat is comfortable and I've gotten used to having a place to plug in my laptop and use it for the whole flight, it's going to seem like duty on a slave galley to fly coach on American Airlines back to Raleigh. I really can't say enough about the crew. The cabin crew are the nicest people you can imagine. I don't know how they can work so hard and smile at us all the time. I feel like I'm leaving all my new friends behind. The engineers and cockpit crew are great, too. They come through the cabin and talk to us and answer any questions we have. Chris the engineer has been a real blast to talk to. He showed us pictures of his family and told us some good places to go in London while we're visiting there. Eddie the first officer was also a lot of fun to get to know a little bit. It turns out he has family in Dubai, and took some of the crew on a special outing there. I think they had a better time than we did. I know they did the first day.

The crew are wearing clothing they bought at the souk yesterday. They've had a real flair for dressing up. They had asian costumes on after Cambodia, and Indian garments when we were leaving Agra. It really makes things fun when they mix things up like that. They seem to have a really good time, too. It was surprising to learn that they've never worked together as a group before. They seem so friendly and at ease with each other. Maybe you have to be that way to be a flight attendant.

We arrived at Luton airport, which is a private airport some ways away from London. It took about an hour and a half to make the trip into town, mostly because of traffic. The Dorchester is absolutely decadent it's so luxurious. Every fixture, every piece of furniture is absolutely as fine as it can be. It's a wonderful place to end our tour. Jan and I scrambled around to get our things together to have shipped back home because we didn't have room and available weight to get the carpet home. Since we were having to ship that off, we figured we might as well send the clothes we weren't going to use in London, and it ended up being quite a bit. We used my duffel bag to get it down to the concierge desk, and it was more than my big bag could hold. It's probably going to cost a fortune to send it. We told the man we wanted the slowest, cheapest transportation he could arrange, but it is still going to be quite expensive.

Once we got that straightened out, we went to dinner. The food was great. They had a prawn dish that was particularly good. Everyone was saying goodbye. Some were getting teary-eyed. I have to admit, even the people that I didn't think I would get along with seemed like old friends by the end of the trip. Everyone has their eccentricities. Except me. I'm perfect. Ha ha.