On Thursday evening my partner and I returned from our two week trip to the UK - a trip originally booked in late 2019 for summer 2020, that has been pushed back many times since, and finally was able to take place just recently.
The delays made for a fair amount of anxiety and frustration, some pleasant surprises, some fortunate coincidences, and even some devastating heartache. Ultimately, though, I'm thrilled we were finally able to take the trip, had a brilliant time throughout the entirety of it, certainly do wish it could have taken place sooner, and it was worth the wait.
First and foremost, the most unfortunate part - When we'd originally booked the tour, I reached out to a tour guide I'd first met as far back as 2007, on a trip I'd taken to London then. Richard was the guide we ended up with on a trip booked through a third party (Viator, I think) and was so remarkable and fantastic I ended up canceling other plans I had for later in that trip to book an additional tour with him. He was a black cab driver, blue badge guide, bottomless well of fascinating facts and trivia and such a true joy to tour with I'd book more tours with him again on trips in 2010 and 2012, while also referring friends and family to him who all ended up adoring him as much as I did. I was thrilled at the prospect of going on some more tours with him, and reached out in late 2019 when I first made these travel plans to discuss arranging some outings. Sadly, COVID made for many postponements, with the most recent postponement coming about just a few days before we were to depart on this trip in late December 2021. Richard was always accommodating and understanding, and we kept in touch through each schedule change and rebooking. A few weeks before our departure to London, I reached out to Richard to finalize some plans but ended up not hearing back for some time. Finally, I got an email from his wife - Richard had been battling pancreatic cancer and had just passed. More than anything I was devastated for his wife and son, but was also profoundly saddened I'd never get to enjoy another tour with him. He's the standard by which I measure all tour guides now, and demonstrated perfectly the kind of impact a tour guide - being one's host in a new country, and sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm for their own culture and history - can have on a traveler. RIP Richard Liddle of Capital Taxi Tours/See More Taxi Tours.
Richard's wife had taken over many of her late husband's duties, and in fact Richard had been doing more scheduling of other guides as of late rather than conducting tours himself because of his health issues. They assured me tours I planned to take with them would go ahead, and the tours ended up being a wonderful opportunity to spend time with these other guides and share stories about Richard and toasts to his memory.
We had the late, 10pm departure on Virgin Atlantic from SFO-LHR. A trip that had been delayed 2 years decided to keep us on edge until the very last minute, as our departure from SFO was delayed a good little while as they were unable to close the plane's cargo door after everything had been loaded. It was even starting to look like the flight was going to get canceled (one last curve ball?) before the door finally let itself we closed and we were off.
We landed at Heathrow at about 5pm on the 27th, breezed through immigration, grabbed a black cab (I was in a splurging mood), and made our way to St. Ermin's hotel. Checked in there, dropped our bags off, took a moment to appreciate the room (we got a really good deal on a 1 bedroom suite, paying a rate that was a fraction of what standard rooms were going for by the time we got there. We managed to do all our hotel bookings before the Platinum Jubilee rush hit, I suppose). Unlike if we'd arrived in December, getting to our hotel in the early evening still left us with plenty of sunlight so we decided to do some walking.