Olympic heroes and heroines from around the world, said goodbye, adieu, auf wiedersehen and many words for farewell besides on Monday. In Heathrow, a 'memory tree' had been set up where up to 6,000 departing athletes could write messages about London 2012. The tree, surrounded by replicas of typical London iconography such as double decker buses and park benches, featured cards with the words: "My greatest memory is...."
US footballer Amy Rodriguez, known as 'A Rod', left the message: "Winning the gold medal in football".
Others taking home sweet memories headed out of the capital via St Pancras, but Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, the gold and bronze medal-winning triathletes took a helicopter. They posted a picture of themselves in front of their exclusive ride, clutching a bottle of bubbly.
Michael Phelps was also relaxing in style, tweeting a photo of himself in a sunny resort, having apparently just caught a fish. The 18-time gold medal winner wrote: "An amazing first week of retirement". Sir Chris Hoy was also celebrating his last Games, having ruled himself out for Rio 2016.On Sunday, the king of the velodrome was joined by long distance champion Mo Farah and swimmer Rebecca Adlington at a drinks reception for Team GB.The next morning he asked his followers on Twitter: "Who's feeling a bit sad this morning? Let's all huddle in and have a big Twitter hug. Don't worry – there's still the Paralympics to come."