The end of a great road trip

Our last morning in Vegas, and of the holiday. I wasn’t sorry to be leaving the former, as on the whole I’d found it too loud and too brash, despite some interesting sights. But I was less keen on the idea of going home, and certainly less keen on the idea of the long journey ahead.

But before that we had a few more hours in which to explore Las Vegas, as our flight wasn’t until the evening and we'd paid for a late checkout. We decided to see a bit more of the Strip and in particular to revisit Caesar's Palace which we remembered being fascinated by on our last visit to the city almost thirty years ago.

We took the monorail from behind the MGM Grand, across the Strip from New York New York. We only went a couple of stops, getting off by the Flamingo. We took a few photos here but didn’t go inside.

Crossing the footbridge to Caesar's Palace we wandered around inside for quite a while, photographing all the pseudo-classical ornamentation and general bling.

We then crossed to the Bellagio but spent less time there. Continuing south we found ourselves in the Cosmopolitan and keen for a refreshment break, in my case ideally coffee. For the second time in two days we found that the only option was a Starbucks so settled for that, somewhat reluctantly. I had to admit however that my espresso was better than past experience would suggest. Maybe it’s just in the UK that their coffee is so tasteless?!

Refreshed we continued our walk south, back to New York New York. We had plenty of time to freshen up and change for the journey, and to finish packing before checking out. We drove the few miles to the rental car drop-off which was in a garage shared by all the rental companies. We took the shuttle to the airport where we arrived far too early to check our bags, so we looked for somewhere to have a late lunch. And guess what? The only option on the landside of security was another Starbucks! Three times in two days after years of not going near them (even in Seattle some years ago).

We killed the remaining time with messages and in my case catching up on my notes. When baggage drop opened we went through, impressed by the friendliness of the Virgin staff and even security too!

I bought some Las Vegas themed chocolate as gifts for family, then we simply waited while making use of the good airport WiFi. Thankfully we boarded on time and were grateful to find that as on the outward flight we had a row of three seats to ourselves. It was dark by now so no chance of photos from the plane as we took off! A meal was served soon after - a decent small salad starter and chocolate mousse dessert sandwiching a nondescript pasta dish. Afterwards I dosed a little but as usual didn’t manage to sleep properly. One thing that didn’t help at all was the chilliness on board – it was freezing at times!

After what seemed a rather long night breakfast was served about two hours before landing: good yoghurt and fruit salad and a stodgy egg muffin. We landed on time and everything went smoothly at Heathrow, so we were soon home. There we were greeted by a leak from our cold water tank which had rather flooded the bathroom in our absence – back down to earth with a bump!