Upwards and onwards

When checking around our suite on the Silver Spirit before departure this morning, I discovered that Silversea had thoughtfully supplied a jewellery box in the safe inside the walk-in wardrobe. Damn! I could have stored all my sparkly stuff safely in there! Oh, wait...

So, today it was back to the real world, with no more butlers, or jewellery boxes or (apparently) free glasses of champagne just for the asking - it's always a disconcertingly abrupt transfer. The moment you emerge from the marquee on the dock, you're on your own again, wrestling your suitcases over the cobbles and arranging things for yourself. 

Copenhagen looked beautiful, clean and neat and colourful as we drove through the old town on our way to the airport. Three times I've been there now, and it's still a delight. Not the airport, though: it's kind of confusing, with passport control halfway through the airside shopping centre, and no announcements at all. There would be a sudden and unsignalled move of passengers towards the gate, then the tide would turn, and then turn again. Most odd. And then boarding was kind of random, simultaneously from the airbridge and the rear stairs, so everyone met in the middle inside and it was a real bun-fight getting to our seats. 

Never mind. The view from the left-hand side was lovely flying out, over the city, the islands, the Jutland peninsula and the coast of the Netherlands, and then onto England towards the astonishing sprawl of London, finally descending over Windsor with a splendid view of the Castle in the sunshine. Heathrow, on the other hand, is very far from splendid - a grim necessity, where immigration is a LAX-level ordeal as literally a thousand people from multiple planes queued and shuffled for literally an hour and a half to get to the booths. And then of course there are miles to walk to get to the transport into the city. Augh.

But now we're in London, in Putney near the Thames. There was a family reunion with added friends, a fun evening in a pub, excellent pie and cider, and a warm summer night. Sorry, Silversea, we've moved on already.