A sad good bye

A final day in London and we all set out to do some sightseeing. Bags packed and not thinking about the inevitable, we headed into the city, which was packed and crowded with people out to enjoy the heatwave.

We marveled at the sights and grabbed some last minute shopping before heading back to the hotel in the early afternoon.

It was sad to see this ending…

We almost lost a member of the group as Danie was almost left behind, a taxicab bringing him in the nick of time to the bus after he fell asleep on the tube. Nobody should say this tour was an easy one…

At Heathrow we headed for some duty free shopping to show folks at home we had thought of them, and then headed to the plane.

A long night’s sleep filtered through the group, as weary heads and bodies found some rest at 30 000feet.

It was over, the end was in sight. The marathon was done and we had survived.

We had travelled Europe’s best breweries, drunk their finest offerings and experienced some magnificent sights.

We had stories of stories, enough to fill several books. They were funny, they were ready to be shared back home. They were simply legendary.

This was an experience of a lifetime. We had known that going heading to Europe. But none of us would have guessed how much our journey would have instilled in us.

We may have headed out of South Africa as beer drinkers ready for a jol. We returned home as a bunch of friends, a Castle-bound family who had found something special in Europe, something we couldn’t explain.

As we said our goodbyes there were a few tears, a few sad thoughts and many hugs.

We knew this would never be the end. We knew we had ventured to find something out there that could match a Castle. We knew that this was the only task that we had failed in.

Our journey would be etched in our hearts, our friendships will live on long after the tour has been forgotten.

And as we left each other to head to our respective homes, we all had a smile knowing we would meet again somewhere in the near future.

And we would share our war stories of Europe over a Castle, with fun and friendship with us all the time.