ENGLAND TRIP: Day 10: Heading Home!

On Wednesday, May 16, 2012 we enjoyed our last day in England. We got up early and had a nice breakfast at the Langdon House Bed and Breakfast. We gave our compliments to Paul and Sonja Fogg, owners of the B&B and have stayed in touch with them. During our breakfast, we met two nice couples staying at the B&B. Both were older couples. One just married and were headed to Norway for their honeymoon.  The other couple was from Lee, Massachusetts (Rob's home state).


NICE CAB RIDE - We had the pleasure of having a young, personable, cab driver for our trip to Heathrow. He was originally from India, I think. He drove us past fields of rapeseed,which pepper the countryside with their beautiful yellow blooms.

Rapeseed fields near Windsor

 WHAT IS RAPESEED? It's a beautiful yellow crop that grows in fields throughout England.
Brassica napus Linnaeus—known as rapeseed,or Canola—is a bright yellow flowering member of the Brassicacea family (mustard or cabbage family). It is a mustard crop grown primarily for its seed which yields about forty percent oil and a high-protein animal feed. Traditional and other uses have been for lamp oils, soap making, high-temperature and tenacious high-erucic acid lubricating oils, and plastics manufacturing. Rapeseed oil has also become the primary feedstock for biodiesel in Europe

An English garden we admired

ENGLISH GARDENS - Tom and I talked to the cab driver about the ornate and beautiful English gardens that average people created in front of their homes. People really take pride in their gardens in England. 

RUNNYMEADE
The cabbie also drove through Runnymeade, and told us that it was the place where the Magna Carta was signed in 1215 (the basis for the U.S. Bill of Rights).
Runnymede is a water-meadow alongside the River Thames in Surrey county. It's located about 20 miles west of central London. The site has a number of memorials about the Magna Carta, but we couldn't stop to see them on our way to the airport.  

We arrived at the airport 3 1/2 hours early to check in, and checked email while waiting on one of their computer pay stations.

Flying home- England out the window!

Rob and Tom trying to get comfy on the 9hr flight

Sign in a building Tom liked in London

Tom and Rob with Parliament House and Big Ben in the background

OUR FAVORITE BRITISH WORD: 

Busking - That's playing music at the subway for cash. 

THAT CONCLUDES OUR GREAT TRIP TO ENGLAND! We hope you've enjoyed reading about it.