Thursday Heather flew into Heathrow, so I took the bus from Cambridge to the airport, and picked her up.

Christ’s Pieces, via flickr

Most of the buses in Cambridge leave from the central station on Christ’s Pieces, but the airport buses originate and terminate a couple blocks to the south, at Parker’s Pieces. Fortunately, everything’s reasonably well marked, and it’s not too difficult to find the bus you need. (The Cambridge-to-Heathrow bus seems to be the 797, which also helps.)

parker’s pieces, via flickr

Heather’s plane was late leaving SFO, so it was delayed by a couple hours. I had to change our bus tickets, which meant a ridiculous set of fees (National Express, like most bank, seems to love them their transaction fees). After that, I headed from the Central Bus Station to Terminal 1. It’s a couple minutes away by tunnel, and then you’re in Terminal 1.

tunnel to terminal 1, via flickr

After looking around a bit, I found the restaurants at the departure level, in an upstairs area that overlooks check-in and security. So I spent the next couple hours there, doing some reading. There are a couple coffee places, so it was a pleasant enough place to spend time.

reading, via flickr

Eventually, Heather’s plane arrived, and we headed back to the bus station. There’s huge amounts of construction on the highways around London, and we were fighting both rush hour traffic and a couple accidents, so we ended up getting into Cambridge about an hour later than planned. C’est la vie.

What matters is that we made it, and have the next couple months in England, largely child-free. I don’t think I’m going to cease to find that amazing until after we’ve left.