Great Adventures in Travel: London May 1990

 

When I was a child, my grandmother told me if I saved my pennies someday I would be able to go to England. I did save my pennies, I am still saving them (at last count I have about 300 pounds of them.) I dreamed about going to where my grandmother was from. 

From late 1987 to mid 1991 I had an era of extraordinarily hard work, and high earnings.  In some ways I am still benefiting from that era, since then I have had nicer cars that a are paid for, and money that was set aside for retirement at that time is still growing away.  I was also miserable most of the time. I was in a relationship that didn't work for either of us, and I was working 60-70 hours a week in an environment where what you had accomplished was never good enough.  

I was walking by a travel agency next the neighborhood supermarket and saw a sign in the window, round trip air and six nights hotel in London for $666 a person. I had never been across the Atlantic. A get away was in order. I booked it, scrambled to get passports in time, and away we went.  

It was in many ways a dream trip.  I had wanted to take this trip for 20 plus years. I remember looking out the window as the plane was landing in London and thinking this is it, I have made it at last.  I have always loved the moment when the wheels touch down, and this one was very special.  

I was relatively young, at the peak of my running days (yes that is me in the photo.) We spent days exploring London, riding the Tube, seeing museums, going shopping, and not thinking about the office.  This was before email, before international cell phone service.  

There are wrinkles in the memory, things I wanted to do that didn't happen, my soon to be X being pickpocketed. But overall I have very fond memories of the adventure.  

Of course when I returned, my boss came to visit, and lectured me about having enjoyed my time off it was time to get back to work and make up for all of the time I had taken off (8 days in a row.) 

The following January we went to Amsterdam and Paris in a last ditch effort to see of travel could save a failing relationship. It couldn't. 

But I will always have the memories of that first week in London.

The camera, is a Canon AE 1 program, with a power winder, and probably a 24mm lens. I had 24mm and 28mm lenses, those were great glass.  That set up weighed about three pounds, and there were two more lenses in my backpack, a 50mm f1.4 and a 135mm f 3.5.