Radcliffe 3 - Homeward Bound
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
1
220
Trip End
Jun 17, 2009
Radcliffe, England, United Kingdom
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
We are awake at 6am and finish off the last bits of packing. Yes, after six months in Portugal it’s finally time to leave for home. Our preparations with Susan are completed and she is ready to continue with local staff and run the guest house through the summer.
It’s a bright, sunny morning with the temperature already in the high teens. A quick tea and toast and we load the car, where Bonnie has sat nearby as if to see us off. Goodbyes are short and we set off into the countryside and the deserted (well they were never busy) roads.
The leisurely drive south down the A2 – IP1 autopista is uneventful and gives us the chance to start thinking about life back in the UK, something we have never had time to do at MV. It’s going to be strange being home after ‘settling’ here for six months and I’ve personally enjoyed the challenges that we’ve encountered here. Although I am happy that I could live abroad we have a suspended life in England to resume, whatever it will be after being away for twenty one months – Yes, wherever did it go?
Faro airport is quite busy and touristy, lacking in the buzz and impressiveness of some international airports and having an obvious JW rating of 5 in the big tourist duty free shops. We take off into clear skies and head up the coast, looking down on the miles and miles of Atlantic beaches. As we near the north of Portugal it becomes misty, over Spain it is cloudy and by the time we reach southern Ireland it is dense cloud, as if a veil has been drawn over the time we have spent away. We treat ourselves to a small bottle of champagne to celebrate our final flight, accompanied by a bacon butty – oh I’m going to miss the jet setting life!
Descending through the cloud over Ireland, we get snatched glimpses of small bays being bombarded by waves and on the approach to the north of England it starts to rain. Touchdown and those words I have come to dread over many years of travelling, "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Manchester". We taxi in through the pouring rain, stroll to reclaim all our bags and then meet Norah’s brother, Donald, who has come to return us to normality.
Normality? Whatever’s that going to be? The stay in Portugal may have offset any kind of celebratory homecoming or did it help to ease us gradually back down to earth, after what has undoubtedly been the adventure of a lifetime? We’ve seen fantastic sights and experienced amazing things that will stay with us forever. This was a trip that was only in our dreams and was never expected to ever happen. I still feel that we have been incredibly fortunate, in that a few twists of fate gave us the chance to go on this trip and whatever the future now holds, it will be something that I will never forget and never regret. I have been round the world and that’s not bad for a kid from Radcliffe, who as a teenager was driven to the next town and found himself completely lost!
Now, where did we store the lawnmower???
