Part 5 - The deep south

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Day 3 on the road and I am starting to feel homesick. I didn't get the best nights sleep since my bed kept shaking every time either of the people below moved about. Still, I felt better after a £3.50 breakfast and got on my bike headed for Bromley. I had no idea what expect. I was not sure if Bromley was going to be a well-to-do area like Highgate Village or a bit of a shit hole. It turns out it was a bit of shit hole, but at least having past through Lewisham on the way, it was not as bad as that!

Without knowing quite what to do in Bromley, I took refuge from the cold in a high street cafe and ordered a cheese and ham toasty. I'm sure they watered down the brown sauce. Pity. On the up side, I got chatting to the ladies on the table next to me who told me they live in Bromley. 'So what's good about Bromley?' I asked them. They looked at me a bit funny before replying; 'nothing', 'well it's a good place to raise a family', 'it's just 22 minutes to Victoria on the train', 'not really any reason to come here though'. Fair enough, I had already suspected as much and probably won't be coming back. I can cross it off my bucket list.

I checked Wikipedia before I left and discovered the following information about the borough of Bromley. It's the largest borough of London and most of its 309,000 inhabitants live in the north of the borough while the southern part is more rural. 84% of the population class themselves as white, and ethnic minorities make up 16% which has doubled since 2001. Whilst pondering if that actually means anything interesting I picked my next destination.

I thought I'd head for the Crystal Palace dinosaurs. It was in the Time Out list of things to do in south London and I was running out of inspiration. Bearing in mind my last inspiration had been Bromley, anywhere seemed like a good idea. I even considered the Beddington Sewage Treatment Works but it seems they don't do tours. Cycling towards Crystal Palace I realised just how hilly this part of south London is. There are probably 2 or 3 hills in south London. I should probably research it as somebody might be interested.

It turns out that all of the models of the dinosaurs are based on thinking at the time when they were made i.e. 1854 I think. Anyway, I had a quick whip round but I wont be back. Just not that exciting. Back on my bike, I headed for Carshalton via Croydon. I found a nice pub called the Woodward and have never been so happy to have a pint of Guinness. Tracy the bar lady though I was very brave cycling around London all my own. Just what I needed, somebody to boost my ego when I was beginning to think this was probably the most stupid idea I had ever had. Turns out she's never been to north London. This really is a tale of two cities. The second pint was almost as good as the first.

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