Trip 10: Heathrow Terminal 5

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Two and a half months, two and a half spokes, hundreds of miles, one 100-mile detour and here we are. A quick round-up list goes like this:
Best station: Uxbridge. All the Piccadilly stations seem to be classic buildings. There should be more like them and fewer like those on the Central line.
Strangest ride: Must be a tie between the first and the last. North and South London fade into suburbs and parks and so on; the industrio-airport stretch East and West throws up some frightening rides and creepy desolation.
Surprise find: the Grand Union canal towpaths, which I kinda knew were there, but had never really explored.
Furthest: Epping. Worth it? Nah.
Nearest: Hammersmith (or Waterloo). Worth it? Nah.

And so today's last jaunt mostly along the A4 which beyond Brentford has one of those handy but often annoying side-of-road bike paths. What this means is it's very safe and comfortable, but when you come to a cross road it's very unsafe and uncomfortable; you have to either stop or crane your neck around to see if anyone's turning, or usually both, and then creep across or speed across as conditions dictate. So stop and go all the way, and getting out to Heathrow was never going to be easy, was it? Especially this time of year in the dark, the merciless traffic and merciless Tube workers (no you can't go on the Underground, not even just this once). But forget all that. The elation comes with counting down the miles out to Terminal 5, until you're there underneath what can only be called the superstructure. Planes overhead coming in and out; it's both the ultimate terminus point for London and the ultimate transit point for the world. And so the bike and this challenge gets retired ... but all the rest continues.