Recollected two days later in Paris.
1) Packed up, hotel breakfast, back up to my room for a couple last minute things, and a knock on the door from the housekeeper. “You checking out today?” she asked tentatively, clearly eager to get an early start somewhere. I cleared out in ten minutes for her. Travel days sometimes make me antsy; no point in unduly hanging around.
2) I walked to the train station after all. It wasn’t as onerous as expected. And then I sat outside on a bench getting to the explosive denouement of His Majesty’s Airship.
3) Which I finished en route to London. Spoiler alert: almost everyone dies a fiery, excruciatingly painful (but hopefully brief) death. Zeppelins were never really the best idea, and this team of empire builders was hampered by not wanting to pass bad news to the top — especially to Lord Thomson, who never wanted to hear it anyway. Hubris at the top, cowering at the bottom.
3a) Mysterious fact: among what little wreckage could be identified was one woman’s shoe, which was quite remarkable considering that no women were on board. The author suggests that it might have been in Lord Thomson’s baggage as a souvenir of his romance with Marthe Bibesco. Who knows?
England flies by as I get ever closer to London.
4) Pulling into London there was an announcement that one Tube line was closed and another operating with serious delays, so I chose a taxi instead.
5) Back at what is now my Old Stomping Ground, after a bit of a delay I was shown to a room on the lower level accessed through the breakfast room and the back stairs. Con: no elevator access. But, Pro: more spacious, which was helpful for the Great Repacking.
Unbelievably, my travel library has grown to this! I promise I only packed two of them, and only two were gifts. Like they said in Jaws, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
6) Which I started almost right away. One side of my small suitcase is now entirely books. It stays in London while I proceed to the continent.
7) Catching up on the news (always a risky activity these days), something (I no longer remember what) upset me so much I was overpowered by the need for a NAP.
8) And then came the conundrum of what to do for dinner. Which meant a stroll through Bloomsbury. So many possibilities, so many risks! I strolled up and down a whole street of restaurants and finally settled on an Italian place (please, contain your astonishment), where I had a very good dinner — especially the dessert.
Om nom nom.
9) And back to my room to write, and bed later than I expected!