Saying goodbye to London

The next day we said goodbye to Robert and Tiffany, who followed Zack to Sweden. We spent the rest of the day packing up all our possessions and, with the help of the Kiwis, sending lots of our stuff away. Amy and Don took some of the smaller pieces of furniture, plus lots of kitchen stuff, and they picked it all up, plus our camping gear for Greece, in a rented van, which was enormously helpful. After all was said and done we were left with an almost-empty flat, and we recreated our first night there with late-night Edgware Road takeout and a bottle of champagne, but with a few more tears this time around.

In the morning we frantically ran around to charity shops and a shipping store, dropping stuff off with the help of amused taxi drivers. Once we had absolutely every last thing out of there, we said goodbye to our amazing flat and our pretty street and went and handed in our keys. Where else could we possibly go afterwards for our last neighborhood meal, but Canteen? The staff knew we were leaving, too, and they all came over to say goodbye to us and gave us free dessert as a parting gift. I think they might actually miss us; we were certainly two of their best customers. Afterwards, we caught a bus down to the Victoria and Albert Museum for one last visit, then went to the National Gallery to finish our long, slow tour of all the paintings, and the National Portrait Gallery to say goodbye to it, too. The, with heavy hearts and bags we got on the Tube to head out of Central London for the last time. We stayed with the Kiwis for two nights in their lovely home in Cricklewood before leaving for Greece. Amy made us relax all day on Saturday, which we really needed, and then we were up at dawn the next morning to fly to the Greek islands.