London on a Lime Bike

When you plan a trip to London, you need to pack at least one pair of walking shoes. Depending on your style and baggage allowance, you might need more. My cousin Rochelle arrived from Canada on her first trip to London with a couple of pairs of high heels, including a pair of stilettos. On the last day, as she was repacking her bag to head home, I heard the clicking of pointy heels on the wooden floor. When I checked on her, I found her walking around the guest room in her stilettos. She wanted them to experience London, even if it was only a bedroom since they hadn’t left her suitcase.

When I lived in London, I averaged 10 km a day—five for walking my dear dog Neo and five for my regular life. I returned in May 2024 with two pairs of trainers in my suitcase, dreading all the walking ahead of me. Fifteen years later, my knees and will were both weaker. I’m not someone looking for opportunities to maximise my step count, nor am I keen to follow the London tourist mantra: "The more you walk, the more you see; the more there is to see, the more you walk."

In the summer of 2023, the highlight of my time in Berlin, Düsseldorf, and Stockholm was not the history, the cobbled streets, the fine wines, or the city squares, but getting around on those nifty Lime scooters. I took them everywhere. After one day of walking around Berlin, I downloaded the Lime app, figured out how to use it, entered my payment options, got on the scooter, and away I went. But that may be material for another travelogue.

I made this trip to London to reunite with old London besties and hang out with my niece Mithika, her husband Arvind and their two babies Samir and Nyra. I also managed to organise a book talk at the prestigious Nehru Centre in Mayfair for my Penguin Random House published book - Becoming Goan - a contemporary coming home story that drew a record crowd of almost 80 people.

In conversation with Selma Carvalho at the Nehru Centre

Required family photo with Arvind, Nyra, Mithika and Samir

On this trip to London, I spotted large Lime bikes everywhere, though not so many scooters. After day one of pounding the streets and 25,000 steps later, my knees hurt. On day two, I decided to take the lazy way. I got on a bus and watched the world go by. On the third day, a Sunday, I was rushing to catch a matinee but had forgotten how even more unreliable TfL (Transport for London) gets on weekends. I arrived at the play late—sacrilegious given my enthusiasm for the theatre and the extravagance of spending my precious pounds for good seats.

The universe was telling me not to waste my time with TfL or torture my knees but to get on those Lime bikes. My friend Cindy was horrified. She insisted they were too dangerous. My nephew Arvind was scathing: "How can you be so irresponsible? Those bikes are a menace to office-goers and parents dropping their kids off at school. They are just strewn across the footpaths and streets." When that argument did not work and I still insisted on riding those Lime bikes, he cut close, “How can you support these big venture capitalists and big tech in their bid to take over the world?” I ignored both Cindy and Arvind and was determined to give them a go.

The perfect opportunity presented itself on day four when I got off the Jubilee line at Westminster and was not looking forward to a 15-20 minute walk along the Thames to the Tate Britain. I spotted a lonely Lime bike right across from the loud protesting crowds outside the Houses of Parliament. It had my name on it. I opened my app to make sure my credit card details were still accurate. I got on the heavy electric bike and started pedalling. Good speed, minimal effort. I rode within the cycle lanes and got off at difficult junctions. I was responsible even though I wasn't wearing a helmet. Three minutes later, I was at Tate Britain. I parked my bike away from the pavement in a bike rack, uploaded the photo on the Lime app, and ended my trip. I had tasted freedom. It was so much fun. There was no way I was going to walk around London anymore.

It was the beginning of my addiction. I knew I could count on my prehistoric cycling experience from growing up in Pune and cycling everywhere in the 70s and 80s. In 2010, when we were living in London, those Boris bikes made their debut. No apps then, but we had a special key and paid a subscription. It was a novel concept to ride a bike without owning one, to be able to pick it up from a bike stand in one place and drop it off at another stand.

Cordelia and I at The Hyde Park bike rack in April 2011

I smiled thinking about a couple of memorable London bike rides. When William and Kate got married in April 2011, my friend Cordelia and I got on those Boris, oops Barclays bikes and cycled the route. It was an adventure, people-watching, seeing the crowds, portaloos, flags, and merchandise. Another memorable bike ride was when my friend Carole visited from France in June 2011. We were colleagues in Bangkok. I took her on my bike tour of London. We inadvertently joined the Pride parade around Trafalgar Square, that time we were underdressed. This time when Sarah and I joined the Naked Bike Ride, we were more than a little overdressed.

The one friend I had managed to convince to ride with me instead of walking the London beat was Sarah, who came from Oxford to catch up. We met at London Bridge, walked to Tate Modern to see the Kandinsky and her other favourites there and then started our London ride on a Lime bike. We accidentally joined the World Naked Bike Ride on Saturday, June 8, 2024 while riding our Lime bikes from the Tate Modern to the National Portrait Gallery. Despite being fully clothed, it was a wild experience riding alongside hundreds of naked bikers across Blackfriars Bridge and along the legendary Fleet Street. We found out they were protesting against the dependency on oil, demonstrating the vulnerability of cyclists on city streets and celebrating body freedom. Seeing so many people in the buff was surprisingly not shocking; you just accept it and go with the flow. We felt quite safe navigating the mean streets without worrying about huge trucks and buses, as we were part of the crowd swarming through the city.

Naked Bike Parade crossing BlackFriars Bridge

I had many other less dramatic rides. One evening, I was running late to join Cindy and Phil, who were also visiting from LA, for dinner at Dishoom in Kensington. When we all lived in London, Dishoom had just opened its first outlet in Covent Garden in 2010, and the four of us went there often together. I don’t usually go to Indian restaurants when I travel, but Dishoom was an exception. This was nostalgia. One pandemic and fourteen years later, Dishoom had grown; they were bigger and were everywhere. I was also keen to see my friend Naresh Fernandes’ photo hanging on the restaurant wall. Cindy and Phil had a long one-hour wait at the bar before they got a table. I was running late after catching up with my Bangkok neighbour Helen after some 20 years, so the Lime bikes saved me. I took the Central Line to Holland Park from Oxford Circus since the District and Circle line to Kensington High Street aren't frequent enough. I found a bike near the Holland Park tube station and then rode over to Dishoom. Just poor joy.

With Cindy outside Dishoom in Kensington

The rides in and around Greenwich were the most rewarding. I was cruising uphill on a steep incline while watching the fittest of folks struggling. The electric bike makes the hills so easy. Riding back to Mithika and Arvind's home in Greenwich, I was so afraid of Arvind that I would park my bike two blocks away and then walk the last hundred metres. One day, I took a dangerous Google Maps route in Greenwich, and Mithika, who was very supportive of my Lime bike rides, also yelled at me. I had crossed a highway known as a death trap for cyclists, as huge long-distance trucks can’t spot you. Phew!

My two-year old grandniece Nyra and six-year-old grandnephew Samir had heard the words "Lime Bike" so often. They were soon campaigning for others to ride them.

Enough about Lime bikes. Now for a brief roundup of some of the culture. The breadth of choice in London is always overwhelming—what theatre to watch, which exhibits to visit, and how many parks to walk through. This trip, my friends made the choices, so it was easy.

Theatre

Curtain Call for Player Kings with Ian McKellen

I watched three plays:

- "Standing at the Sky’s Edge"—a fantastic musical piece in the intimate Gillian Lynne theatre. The play tracked families through important events in history, all staying in the same flat on a council estate in Sheffield. Through powerful music, acting and storytelling you could feel the socio cultural change. Shades of Clybourne Park that we had all watched together in London's Royal Court in 2010 before it transferred to the West End.

- Watching 85-year-old thespian Ian McKellen play Flagstaff in “Player Kings,” an over-three-hour version of Shakespeare’s "Henry IV," was an experience of a lifetime. We had watched him and Patrick Stewart in "Waiting for Godot" on the West End in the summer of 2009. Sheer genius.

- "London Tide" at the fabulous National Theatre was again three hours of riveting theatre—good singing, contemporary set design with the Thames a powerful motif throughout. Very Dickensian and very London.

Exhibits

The art exhibits I saw were:

• “Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography" at the King’s Gallery. I didn’t go to see the Royals (ok maybe just a little) but to appreciate the work of photographers and look at the evolution of photography over the last 100 years. Seeing how photography has evolved from black and white to today's AI influences.
  

• "Sargent and Fashion" at Tate Britain. It was a huge exhibit about his use of fashion in his paintings—the fall of the dress, the tightness of the suit, the shoulders, the bust. Different ways of expressing his identity and his relationship with the subjects. I was thrilled to spot Goa's iconic modernist /expressionist Souza’s "Crucifixion" there—You can take the girl out of Goa....

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• "Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter, and the Blue Rider" at Tate Modern. Beyond the exhibit it was educational to see a wide range of artists work displayed here from Japan to Africa and the Carribean.

• "Japan: Myths to Manga" at the Young V&A—Samir and I spent an afternoon at the Young V&A. I can't recommend it enough for anyone with young children. There are so many tactile and creative games. Kids can make their own board games and play with blocks of different sizes and textures to create their own designs. The Manga exhibit was cool; although he loves Pokémon and found it a bit strange, we enjoyed the hands-on activities with stamps and origami.
  

• "Reframing Narratives: Women in Portraiture" at The National Gallery was impressive but they have along way to go to include all women.

Samir outside the Young V&A

Eating Out

Beyond the obligatory visits to Dishoom and Ottolenghi, and fish and chips at a pub, I want to shout out to the top three new places with great food, wine and attentive service:

- Opso, Modern Greek restaurant in Marylebone.

- Combio de Tercio, a very good Spanish restaurant on Old Brompton Road.

- Hispania, on Lombard Street, right in the City.

If you are just looking for a sundowner spot to sip a glass of prosecco and nibble on some olives with a view of London life I enjoyed The Portait above the National Portrait Gallery with a view of Trafalgar Square and Caravan at Coal Drops Yard, convenient location near Kings Cross in the happening Coal Drops Yard.

London reunion on my favourite bench in Hampstead Heath

Parks

I walked in all the old favourites—Regent's Park, Primrose Hill, Hampstead Heath. I missed Neo terribly, I used to walk him there every day. I also enjoyed walking in newer discoveries Greenwich and Blackheath. Yes, I walked a bit; I didn’t only ride my Lime bike.

One morning, there was a Lime bike right outside the front gate that I almost tripped over, and I confronted the menace. Cities across Europe are campaigning for regulation of these Lime bikes and scooters with good reason. But in June 2024, I loved my time in London on a Lime bike almost as much as catching up with friends and family from Pune to Bangkok, Bombay, Goa, and London, friends who flew in from the US, and hanging out with Samir and Nyra, taking him for his weekend swimming lessons and park runs, and her for her football and diddi dance classes.

Getting on near the Tate Modern