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June 20 Tuesday sunny Bicycle touring England Bruni was meeting a friend for lunch in north London, so Sharon and I caught a ride in with her. At a park we looked through a National Trust house. Many paintings amongst its many rooms. I liked the library room best with its two ornate white and gold columns. Outside, we walked to a lookout point. We could see the buildings of London in the hazy distance. The National Trust house has changed the old livery stable into a tea house restaurant. We had tea and I gobbled a large wedge of superbly rich and creamy Black Forest cake. Mmmm. Future fuel for my bicycle touring fuel tank. Bruni dropped us off at an underground station. We caught the tube to Coventry Gardens where some Outdoor stores are. There were also fruit and vegetable markets. We bought cherries. The Outdoor shop, to my surprise and delight, agreed to exchange my sole-cracked Tevas for new ones. They said they had never seen anything like that before. I didn't tell them I had ridden my bike in them ... the crack is suspiciously close to where the edge of a pedal would be. However, Sharon has rode in her Tevas a lot more and nothing has happened to hers. We looked for candles for our candle lantern, but can't find any. We took the tube to Cotswold's, another outdoor shop, by the Shepherd Bush station. The clerk there phoned their other stores, and even the warehouse, to no avail. They have had them on order for months, she tell us. What is this? A candle shortage? No wax? How am I ever going to write in my bicycle touring journal? We went to Lillywhite's, near Picadilly Circus. It is five stories of outdoor equipment. Sharon bought a new pair of black cycling shorts. Bruni and Alastair have very kindly booked us tickets for Les Miserables as my birthday present, at the Palace theatre. We walked to find the theatre and pick up the tickets, so we won't be in a rush when it begins at 7:30 PM. After picking up our Les Miserables tickets, we went to Deep Pan, a pizza place that has an all you can eat offer for pizza and pasta. I don't know how they can make any money if all their clientele were hungry bicycle touring tourists. Guess they didn't know we were coming. Les Mis was fantastic. We had seats in the upper balcony that provided a great view. We could see the orchestra in the orchestra pit under the stage. Tiny binoculars were attached to the backs of the theatre seats in front of us. The binoculars could be liberated for a mere twenty pence. Unfortunately, they did little to bring the action closer -- true opera glasses. The Les Mis singing was superb. The Les Mis acting was terrific. The atmosphere of the Palace theatre was wonderful with old carved wood, the old seats, and the way the balconies went straight up over the lower floors. Everything was compressed. We were in our usual casual attire and didn't feel or even look out of place. No one was dressed to the nines; lots of people looked liked tourists -- and probably were. Theatre-going in London proved to be a relaxing venture, available to the masses. One of the ushers was a Chinese girl with dyed long blonde hair. Les Mis ended at 11 PM. We walked back to Picadilly Circus and caught the tube to Angel station near Ali and Sophie's apartment, or flat. The downtown core was hopping with people walking from theatres and others lined up to get into clubs. There was an amazing variety of wildlife hanging around the fountain in front of the blazing neon adverts. As we exited the tube, I gave my transit pass to a guy saying goodnight to some friends. Sharon gave hers to his girlfriend. He looked happy, hoisted the tickets and said in a very cheery tone, "Cheers, mate!" A short three block walk brought us to Sophie and Ali's flat. Their flat is centrally located -- in quite a good neighborhood, I noticed -- as we walk past three Porsches parked on the street in front of the flat. The flat actually belongs to Sophie's dad. He was living in Rome for a while, so let Sophie use the flat. She is Dutch. Sophie is a correspondent for the Economic Times and she is moving to China in a week to work there. Ali just got his first real job at a bank doing forecasts for currencies. Alastair says they are paying him w-a-a-a-a-y too much for a starting salary. The flat is up two flights of stairs. Ali yelled down from an open living room window to direct us as we arrived. When we enter the flat, we find Sophie hunched over a portable computer, writing a letter. A myriad of scrunched up paper is tossed under the table. A true writer. Never satisfied. It also points out the fact that writing is dang tough business. Even for journalists. Ali has cycle toured in a bunch of the Eastern CIS countries with names that end in Stan. The Stan bicycle tour, he calls it. He says the Stan countries are great -- full of mountain scenery and people that time has somehow bypassed. Then he astounds us hardcore fully loaded bicycle tourers. He has his total bicycle touring equipment weight down to a measly six pounds! When he's bicycle touring, he rides about a 150 miles a day. He taught school in Africa and caught malaria. He loves cycling the Alps in Switzerland. He doesn't like wearing a tie to work. He has a new Atlas, and delights in showing us routes along mountains and rivers that we've never heard of let alone bicycle toured. There are a lot of places left in the world for us to cycle tour! |
