This is my first morning in Britain for four and a half weeks. At home, I switched on the radio while unpacking and heard Avo Pärt's
Cantus in memory of Benjamin Britten playing on R3, which perfectly matched my mood.
There were times while away in which I thought briefly of being home, with all the superficial comforts that come with living in a city, but I really didn't miss it in any profound way. I miss the music, of course, and am looking forward to being a musician again in my spare moments between admin and management of people!
Amazingly, the sun rose as we docked in Portsmouth at 6.30 - I believe a blue sky is a rare treat in the UK these days.
In order to delay the homecoming a little, I rode round to Southsea to take in the view before setting off up the A3 back to London.
I use the A3 a lot - it's a very good escape route on a day off during the year - and since 2008 I have been eagerly awaiting the opening of the Hindhead tunnel. Today I was able to ride through it for the first time and was pleasantly surprised to see that there were no speed restrictions. I'd heard stories of 40/50mph being imposed, but it would appear that there's a flexible control system which defaults to 70mph - excellent. It was rather disorienting to be through to the Guildford side so quickly and I missed looking down into the Devil's Punchbowl, but overall it's good to have the Portsmouth/London route become fast, unbroken dual carriageway.
There was next to no traffic in London, and I decided to ride in through Putney and down the King's Road - it's rather more aesthetically pleasing than passing Wandsworth!
So, that's it - journey's end - for the moment, anyway. I'm unpacking, washing, tidying etc and enjoying the quiet bank holiday. I'll probably make a few more posts to tie up some loose ends over the next few days.
