A Friday morning check-in…we’re getting slower and slower these fine days. So just posting what I wrote yesterday before a lovely day in Hyde Park and out at friend Adrienne’s. More about that later. For now just a few random photos and a bit of travel musing.

Thursday Morning: A slowing down day—yeah, that end of a trip mood is always just a little unexpected. You walk through a vibrant street scene and think ‘wow, I never want to leave here.’ Then you find yourself in a pub, pulling out your notebook and jotting down a reminder for something you must take care of on Monday when you’re back home. Love the scones just down the street; do not love the bed in the hotel room. Love travel; need to stop now.

Later this afternoon, we’ll visit one of my favorite former North Fourthers, now a Londoner and a mom. Very much looking forward to that. And as soon as Teresa wakes up she will wrap up her London list-making.

Those satisfying last travel days things will start happening—clothes can be packed that won’t be touched until they’re thrown into the washer at home, not the sink in the next hotel; budgets can be tabulated that won’t have time to veer wildly off-course like our Norwegian car rental bill that was almost half again as much as planned; oh yeah, and the water-proof hiking sneakers and rain coat and pants can be stuffed down at the very bottom of the suitcase only to be removed to their permanent hide-out in the very back of an Albuquerque closet;  decision must be made about whether to buy that last little jar of Nescafe which then you hate to throw out just before you leave for the airport but you cannot put one single tiny more item in any bag—and then we’ll hit the London streets and parks and cafes for today’s cultural and walking adventures.