Ticket to Ride in London: A Travel Memoir

Ticket To Ride in London
(963 WORDS)

The year was 1963, I was eleven years old, and had never dreamed of a reason to visit this jeweled country of fairy tale castles and old-world culture. How could I know that the following year would result in an obsession with a band, its music, and a country that would change my life forever. The Beatles' popularity molded my adolescence and piqued my interest in the humble, blue-collar towns of their birth.

But, childhood dreams often tend to hibernate, until fate pops up at just the right moment. The Internet enabled me to become acquainted with a woman in England, whom I quickly befriended. She invited me to visit, and I accepted.

On July 27, 2000, my plane nosed through a blanket of cotton candy clouds and circled over the green fields of Britain. Emerald patches, bordered by neat hedgerows and tree lines, dotted the landscape. Birmingham International loomed ahead. All seemed still except the racing of my heart.

Jetlagged and confused, I didn't have to search for my friend long before I noticed her racing toward me, flashing a wide smile that crinkled the corners of her eyes. "You're finally here!" she cried, embracing me in a welcoming hug.

"I think so," I replied, cobwebs dancing in my head.

In the days that followed, she showed me what a warm people the English really are. We made exiting plans for a day trip of London. A week later, I stared outside of my window seat on the first train ride I'd ever experienced.

As the intoxicating scenery slipped by, the smoothness of the ride soothed me. The sleek coach with Union Jack colors carried me from the quiet mist of that early August morning to the bustle of London. Its swift passage through open fields lulled me, until we cut savage swaths through wooded areas that passed so close, I had to look away; collision seemed imminent. Red double-decker buses plastered with ads whooshed by with amazing regularity, inches from the train. So many transportation routes in this picturesque country chop narrow, dangerous curves through the landscape. Two hours later, our train docked at Paddington Street Station.