Last Thursday's chilly, dull weather saw me out and about helping to show a group of visitors around part of the city. Before starting out from Longport Station, I took a bit of time to pop up to Burslem to get a few photos of the spot where we will start form in June.
The memorial to the workmen who were killed int he Sneyd Pit disaster of January 1st 1942 is a subdued affair. In the years before coal mines were nationalised safet was really a matter for each pit. Some had better reputations thatn others. As any minig community knew, the men who worked together could just as easily die together, and their families would hope and mourn together.
Starting the ride at the memorial is to remind us, when we think of what was to happen in Lidice later in the same year, received such a positive response from a nation at war, a nation facing air-raids and rationing, the loss of its men in battle and on the convoys; it also came from a community which had its own problems.
On another front, we'll be starting our training rides fairly soon. A multi-day ride with a maximum daily distance of 95 miles, but generally coming in at 80 or so miles a day, requires a bit of practice even if you cycle a lot anyway. The aim is to enjoy the ride, not to suffer fatigue and risk injury. Built into the route are two short days, in Munster and Dresden. So we'll have a bit of time to look around those two cities.
Stoke's version of Dresden presumably comes from the ceramic association with Dresden and its near neighbour, Meissen. Dresden, of course, knows a bit about destruction during the war. Strangely enough, you can sometimes see the boot on the other foot. My brother's mother-in-law is German, though she has lived in the UK for many years having having married in Englishman after moving to London to work a few years after the war ended. She had an aunt and uncle who were fleeing from the Soviet advance. They sent a letter whilst waiting at Dresden for one of the few and far between trains to take them further west. It was posted the day before the city was hit by one of the most ferocious bombing raids of the war. They never arrived.
Fortunately, this ride is not about destruction. The people of Stoke-on-Trent offered a positive response to an evil act when they decided to heed Barnett Stross's call that "Lidice Shall Live." Hopefully, June will bring soem fine weather as we cycle across England, The Netherlands, Germany and on into the Czech Republic.
Personally, I enjoy travelling in Europe and meeting people along the way. How this quite works, given my limited ability in any language other than English, I do not quite understand. People used to ask if I was worried about travelling independently in foreign countries. The anwer is no. There's nasty peices of work wherever you go, but it is a tiny minority - almost everyone I have met when cycling abroad is friendly, helpful and welcoming.
Am I niaive in thinking that, on the whole, the world is, with a few exceptions, made up of people who want to get along together? Maybe, but it is suprising what ordinary folk will do to help a stranger.