Some Days in London
I took the train from Ilkley into Leeds and changed for the fast train to London. There is a lot of chat about the need for very fast trains in the UK along the lines of the TGV in France. This seems all a bit silly. The UK trains are very good and given the distances between most of the big cities, including London to Leeds and London to Manchester , are relatively short the need to go faster to save 30 to 40 minutes on trips seems to be not very cost effective.
I made it back in time to London for a meal prepared by my hosts. How good are they?
The next day I met up with my younger cousins and their children at the Tate Britain. It was a family day out in London. One half of the family lives in Austria. The parents are totally bilingual with perfect German and English. The father is English and teaches business at university in Austria. The mother is Austrian and is an English and History teacher. The children speak English at home and German at school. The advantage of being so skilled in languages is palpable. It highlighted that old joke. I am Australian on other words mono-lingual.
We walked through the Lowry exhibition. I suggest that anyone that has the chance to see it do so. It chronicles a very important part of English history from the between the wars to the mid-sixties. He focuses on the ‘North’, primarily the northwest, but also the northeast, where my family come from. Over the period he painted, England’s heavy industries including coal mining, steel making, ship building and textiles declined. As these industries were concentrated in the ‘North’, this was the area that was most effected. The ‘soft south’ as my Dad called it, sailed on unaffected.
The next day, I spent ‘up West’. I love the West End of London. That nigh I met up with my host in his local pub. I was quizzed by a mate of my host about my LEJOG ride. This bloke is planning to do it to mark his 60th. He may do it in 3 stages – returning to London for some R&R after stages 1&2. Not a bad idea.
On Saturday afternoon, I went to a matinee performance of ‘Let it Be’. This is one of the many ‘duke box’ musicals in the West End theatres. Others include, Jersey Boys, We will Rock You and Mama Mia. As the name suggests ‘Let it Be’ is the Beetles stuff. There isn’t much other than the music. Being a matinee, there was an eclectic audience including youngsters who stood and danced through most of the performance. When ‘Twist and Shout’ was played the whole audience got up and danced. A young mother on isle at the bottom of the dress circle near me had some particular good moves.
On Monday, I took the opportunity to meet up with my erstwhile Foreign Affairs colleague who is finishing her posting at the Australian High Commission later this year. It is always a pleasure to meet up with her.
This was followed by yet another great meal provided by my hosts.
The next day I pack up the bike and headed off to London Bridge to catch the train to Dover and the ferry across to Calais.
I must mention that during the time I was in London, the 4th Ashes Test was being played in Chester- le – street in county Durham. There was a chance that I would go to that Test. Again, it was a good one to missed. Australia lost by 74 runs on the fourth day.
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billrider2013 
Good to hear of your time in England Bill and sorry you missed the cricket! We also went to the Lowry exhibition and as a Northerner enjoyed it. Very much a recapture of childhood memories of the NW of England when most mills had closed but were still there with their chimneys. A strong comment of the social scene and working class of that time – now rather an outdated concept.
Enjoy France – we are in Bordeaux towards the end of September.
I continue with my French and German classes locally as part of the “University of the 3rd. Age.”