Day Twenty-Four: Amsterdam to London

And so it was that our 24 day Contiki tour has finally come to an end. We drove out of Amsterdam early in the morning to be given one last surprise by Steve and Megs; instead of going straight to Calais though Belgium, we were stopping off at the PJ Belgian chocolate factory. It was amazing, and a great way to spend all those excess Euro people didn’t need anymore.

Then it was through France to Calais where we caught the ferry back to Dover. The channel was a lot choppier on the way back so we spent a good part of 90 minutes trying not to fall over or be sick. Once on the bus again we got our Contiki photos and around they were passed for people to writes messages in them. Megs also opened the music playlist up to dedications to remember the trip with, before our final call of ‘Fireworks’ as we pulled into the Royal National Hotel. It wasn’t as hard saying goodbye to everyone as I thought it would be, quite possibly because we had all planned to meet at the London pub that night.

In the meantime we were met by Hilary who I hadn’t actually seen since I was about eight! It was great to see her again, and actually be able to hold a proper, mature conversation with her, something I’m sure I’ve never been able to do before. She kindly drove us to her house where we’ll be staying for the next four nights and made us a home cooked meal, something we’d both been craving for a while.

Finally it was to the London hotel for the last gathering of the Contiki Winter Wanderer, 2010 to 2011. And I think I can safely say; what an absolutely wonderful experience.