It's all over, then - tomorrow morning I fly back to San Francisco. And the very next day ... well, let's not think about the next day, since that's the day I return to work.

It's goodbye from London (:

I thought I'd share with you how I do the journal, since I get a lot of questions about that. I guess the most important thing is that I generally have my digital camera and tripod with me everywhere I go. When I want to take a shot, I just whip the tripod out (it's small, extendable, and fits into a little bag I sling off the back of my camera bag), fasten the camera to the tripod, line up the shot, set the timer, and that's it. I usually take more than one, after checking how the first one looked (the camera contains an electronic display so that you can see the previous pictures you've taken).

Taking the previous pic.

At the end of the day, the first thing I do is process the pictures. I slip the flash memory card out of the camera, and into the little PC-card memory-reader, which slots into the side of any standard laptop. The memory-card then appears as a second little hard disk to my operating system, so I just copy all the photos across to a new directory in my laptop's hard-disk. I quickly review the pics by looking at the thumbnails that show up conveniently in Windows Explorer, and toss out the clearly bad pics, before taking a more in-depth look at each with my imaging software.

Any imaging software will do. At home I use the best, Adobe Photoshop, on my desk-top PC, but I can't justify buying the CD so that I can install that on my laptop too, so I use a cheaper package, Ulead Photoimpact, that came with my digital camera. I usually first decide which photo to use for each particular thing I want to illustrate, and then do some editing: mostly cropping the pic to frame it better; sometimes doing a slight rotation if I was holding the camera at the wrong angle, almost always increasing the contrast (since most digital cameras do not produce very contrasty images), and, in the case of my Canon digital camera, adjusting the color balance too.

The next step is to create the lower quality versions to go on the web. I use Web Thumbnailer for this, and usually make two versions of each pic, each at 65% quality - one size no bigger than 300*300, for the thumbnails, and the other the full-size pic at no bigger than 800*600. The reason for using a thumbnail-software to do this is that it's quicker and more accurate in creating quality, small-file-size versions of the original image than if I did each myself using my imaging software. The original images, even after cropping, are usually too large for web-use.

Finally, I'm ready to write the day's journal entry. For this, I need my notebook, in which I've usually scribbled notes and ideas as they occur to me through the day. I sometimes try to figure out a good order for describing things which links ideas together, but more often, I've either already had an overarching idea, or, failing that, I just wing it. I frequently wish I had more time to do this, as it means I'm sacrificing quality for speed. But I don't have a lot of choice: when I'm traveling, I obviously only have time free in the late evening to do the journal, when I'm usually tired. And the same applies when I'm working. I speed things up by using short-cuts - like cutting and pasting the html for the thumbnails and other page elements from previous journal entries.

Since it's the last entry in a whole two month's worth of daily entries from my travel, I thought I'd end with one of those infernal lists you see in magazines, summarizing the trip. So here goes:

• Most touching artistic experience - central panel of the Sistine Chapel ceiling - Adam and God almost touching fingers.
• Most awesome cathedral inside - St Peters, Rome.
• Most beautiful cathedral outside - Salisbury.
• Best pageantry - gun salute for Queen's Birthday in Hyde Park.
• Most unusual experience - Calcio in Costume, in Florence.
• Best meal - Rules, the oldest restaurant in London (thanks again Kelvin and David!)
• Day of greatest beauty - final day in Florence.
• Best park - Boboli Gardens, Florence
• Biggest and best surprise - how much I enjoyed being with my family.
• Biggest disappointment - not getting on with my brother.
• Best weather - my week in the West Country of England.
• Best shop - Harvey Nichols, in London.
• Favorite museum experience - Tate Modern.
• Favorite castle - Dunstanburgh in Northumberland.
• Best run - first day in Ambleside, with a horse galloping along beside me as I past a field, stepping stones and the beauty of the fells.
• Best walk, last day in Ambleside, a hike up the fells.
• Best hotel - outside Salisbury (the Castlefield Inn in Chettle).
• Best day - 14th July - Cheddar, Wells, Glastonbury, Exmoor, Clovelly.
• Best village - Polperro, in Cornwall.
• Worst hotel - the first two nights (Jenkins Hotel in London)
• Worst food - hotel in Torquay.

Many thanks to everyone who's written me on the trip, and your very kind comments. Knowing that so many people have enjoyed the trip vicariously with me has been something that has made it a lot easier to be alone for so long. And thanks too, to the people who suggested things to do and see before I left. Biggest thanks, though, to Roberto in Florence, Anand in Manchester, and David and Kelvin in London, who were so kind to me when I visited their respective cities.

See you in San Francisco!