The Great Unknown (for now) still unknown

Not Cambridge - Stamford

How Does It End?
September 21-23, 2026

"And in the end, the love you take is equal...  "
Lennon-McCartney

What We Know So Far

The one thing we do know is that we have to return the Budget car to Heathrow by 6:00pm on Tuesday, September 22nd and check in for our last night at the Hilton Garden Inn at Terminals 2 and 3. The next morning, we will be walking to the gate from the hotel for our 9:30am flight much as we did when we starting our voyage at YUL. 

Depending on when we check-in and how tired we are of travelling, we'll have the option of taking the Tube back into London for one last hurrah. We did this in Lisbon a few years ago and it was a pleasant last evening. 

Now that we spent an extra night in Manchester, we are heading south to somewhere. Stay tuned.

We ended up in Stamford at the George of Stamford. A great hotel at the GREAT price. It looked oj at first because I was getting the price in USD. the price in CAD is actually over $500. It is a beautiful and old hotel and the town is really picturesque. We are only 2 hours from our last stop at Heathrow if we take the highway. We might stop in Woburn and somewhere else so that we don't arrive at the Heathrow hotel before our 3pm check in.

Something That I Haven't Mentioned

On our first day on the road, I thought I was driving too close to the left side of the road and thought we might have hit a protruding branch in the hedges. When I looked at the damage that it may have caused there was a pretty scratch in the plastic bumper. For the last 10 days, we have been looking for a Canadian Tire equivalent here but that is nowhere to be found. I just wanted a scratch remover since I have a 2000 pound deductible and did want to get charged. We finally found a NAPA auto parts yesterday and I got some polish to see If I could mask the damage. It really didn't work so the 40 bucks I spent on wax and cloths will be used at home.

On the way back to the room, I decided to look at the video I took of the car before I drove it out of the rental lot. Lo and behold, the damage was already there. Why didn't I look at that 10 days ago? Anyway I will be able to prove that it wasn't me when I bring the car back. Relief but I still have 5 hours on the road before I bring the car back.

I don't know why we didn't see the damage in the beginning but taking a video of the whole car before is a great idea.

The Car is returned and here's what we've learned

First of all, we thought it would be a great idea to check in to the airport hotel to drop off the luggage, then bring the car back. That way, we wouldn't have to lug the bags into the rental shuttle. It kind of worked but there is a £7.20 fee to drop off fee at the hotel and you can only stay for 10 minutes. This is not a hotel charge but an airport fee which I might have to pay for driving through the airport. There is not much traffic around Heathrow because of this as it's not free to drop anyone off. The return of the car was an adventure too because I thought I missed a turn but it ends up I went through the airport one more time. I thought I was being followed by security but in the end the car was returned with no damage. The entrance to the car return is probably the number one place that damage could occur. It's very tight with 2 sharp corners. Below is a is of the damage on the car before I got it. Had we looked at that earlier, I would not have thought we did the damage.

In the end, we drove 954 miles. Only a few of those miles (probably less than 100 miles) on divided highways. A lot of it was very narrow roads. Myrna can now relax as she is not a great 'wrong' side of the road passenger.

Now that we are in our room at the airport, we are contemplating taking the Tube back into London for one last visit.

Update: We did spend one last evening in London. It was warm (around 24 degrees) and we sat outside for supper for the first time this trip.

We are now in the Maple Leaf lounge at Heathrow. It was nice to walk to the gate from the hotel. From our hotel room through security and into the lounge in less than 45 minutes was worth the hefty price of the hotel. The Hilton Garden Inn at Terminal 2 is alright but the rooms are just okay and at that price, there should be complimentary water in the room. That price comes out to over $500CAD after conversion. The other Hilton Garden Inn a few miles from the airport comes in at under $200cad.

In the end, we walked around 205,000 steps for a total of about 190 kilometers (~120 miles) which over 12% of the 1535 kilometers we drove. We didn't drive that much considering our 12 days with a car. In Wales it sat idle for the 2 days there, same in Liverpool and we didn't touch it for 3 days in Manchester.

The entire trip was great. No hitches except thinking I had damaged the car. The car kept telling to put air in the tires but said it wasn't urgent, so we never did it. Last year in Ireland, we had a slow leak that was a real pain and we finally paid to have it fixed. I was starting to really enjoy driving although it was nerve racking. Myrna on the other hand doesn't feel the same.