Heading Home

London Day 3 and Home
After our final English Breakfast, we called a cab to take us to the Green Park Underground, the closest station to the direct Piccadilly Line to Heathrow. The less than 2-mile drive was worth every bit of the £12 cab fare +£3 tip. Then we added a bit of £ to our Oyster cards and, for about £6 each, rode the Underground for 40 minutes out to Heathrow Terminal 3. We totally enjoyed our time in the American Airlines Admirals Club, followed by our First-Class trip back to DFW and then on to SAT. We were sad that Rosanna & family could not pick us up at the airport, but appreciated them keeping their germs away from us weary travelers. Uber took us home where we had a joyful reunion with our Trixie dog. Our Tapas Tour of the World, a truly amazing adventure, has finally come to its end. The memories, however, will last for as long as we do.

Final Wrap-Up
This blog will help us process and make sense of this amazing experience from which we just emerged. Thanks to those of you who tagged along with us.

Traveling for 141 days and visiting 27 countries, and no requirement to cook, or clean, or go to the grocery, much less pack and re-pack, was a privilege few ever have, and yet it was not without its challenges.

Living in a 270 sq ft room was easier than we thought, and we actually often preferred the quiet of our room to the inane conversations going on in the public spaces.

We spent a lot of time in the gym, on the 1/4 mile jogging track around the deck, and participating in exercise classes.

We each lost 5 lbs on this trip. But we ate well and drank some really outstanding wines. Our cabin was on Deck 4 (4113) aft -- The Restaurant and Star Theater were on Deck 2, at opposite ends of the ship -- the gym was on Deck 1 forward; the World Cafe was on Deck 7 ---- which is to say we did a lot of stairs each day and only rode the elevator on rare occasions.

Of the 836 or so passengers, many good acquaintances were made, as well as a couple of friends we'll stay in touch with. And then there were those few folks we would have liked to send back home -- Mr. & Mrs. Napkin; Mr. & Mrs. Suit; & Mr. Sweaty, to name a few. But the good people outweighed the bad, although many many people outweighed us..... And

the 400+ crew and staff were professional in every way. We are rarely "delighted" on surveys, but most days we were "delighted" by Viking.

The animal sightings made us so happy -- ocean, land, & air.

The plastic floating in the oceans made us extremely sad. And the litter in many countries was beyond belief.

Perhaps our two biggest take-aways from this experience were that people are so very much alike -- kind and generous the world over. We never felt unsafe in any situation, and, in fact, felt exceedingly safe everywhere we ventured. And our planet belongs to all of us, regardless of arbitrary lines drawn on maps. We must work together to take care of our world.

Being home with our Trixie dog and near our family again brings us great joy. This trip of a lifetime was amazing and we will absolutely never do anything like it again. Our "Fernweh" - longing for far-off places -- has been sated. For awhile anyway....