Day 24 (July 15): London.

Jul 16

Full day ahead for the Becks’. Live 80s ride at the Peloton Studios here in London with Hannah Frankson. Then we had tickets to see a show and finally drinks, dinner, and more drinks with a long-time friend of mine and her husband.

Post-ride with Hannah at Peloton Studios London.

For those who have ridden live in New York, the London cycling studio is much smaller. I reckon it holds about 1/2 of the people. That said, I believe they are doing a significant refresh later this summer.

I hit a milestone and got my shoutout so that was cool. The class was all songs from 1983 and Hannah wasn’t even born yet. HA! But she did a ton of research and was rattling off facts before and during class. As with all of the Peloton instructors, they know how to keep everyone engaged and laughing throughout the entire experience.

After cleaning up a bit, we went for lunch at Hopper’s and I got to walk past one of the flats I used to live in while in London. The cuisine was Sri Lankan and let’s just say that the heat on one of the dishes stayed with me for a few hours. The food was really good and interesting.

We then walked to the show, which brought us to Buckingham Palace along the way. Translation: crowded.

While we were in NYC a couple of months ago, our cousins recommended that we see an off-Broadway (aka not “official West End”) show in London called “Heathers”, which is based on the movie from 1989 starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater. When we walked into the theatre to take our seats, “Take on Me” was playing (again, a-ha! is a theme on this trip). I took it as a good sign that we would enjoy the show.

It was fun performance and with a couple of interesting takes to make it work for a live show. I don’t know if the production will move to the States, but it’d likely be a hit. What was interesting is that the show had plenty of kids who were young enough to be our kids and they really got into it all as well.

Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for the night’s mayhem. Drinks at a place called Disrespute, dinner at Sabor (Spanish - Galician and Andalucían). Joining us were my friend, Sue, whom I met while working in Luxembourg “awhile back” and her husband, Gavin. Lots of great chatter and before we knew it, we hit last call. And for the record, Sue was all over the a-ha! connection! She’s a Morten gal. I’m a Mags gal. Go figure.