ON A BICYCLE BUILT FOR TWO

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 3, 14 July 1939, Page 23

ON A BICYCLE BUILT FOR TWO

NCE upon a time, the tfaditional conception of a musician was a spiritual-looking gentleman with lank locks. Modern life has certainly changed that; but there is, for some people, still a shadow of doubt whether musicians (and poets and painters) are ordinary human beings. Yet there is nothing eccentric about Roy Hill, New Zealand tenor, and that he as human as the rest of us is easily seenfor, like most of us, one day he got the -wanderlust. So he bought a bicycle built for two, taking a leaf from the redoubtable " Daisy’s" book, and he and Mrs. Hill started off on their travels. Travel has always been looked upon as a luxury for the wealthy few. But it is surprising how cheaply one can see ‘countries-especially if one goes on two wheels. For all

over Europe there are now Youth Hostels, places where a bed and a meal can be had from prices around about 2/-, and sometimes cheaper. After they had toured through many of the loveliest parts of England visiting many historic villages and cathedrals, Mr. and Mrs. Hill crossed to Boulogne and thence into the heart of Belgium, passing through that town of the legendary "Mademoiselle," Armentieres; on to Brussels and Liege and eventually to Aachen on the German frontier. Travelling on a

bicycle built for two has but one drawback on the Continent, Mr. Hill told a Listener representative. On riding over cobble streets, which occur at regular intervals, one is nearly shaken to bits. Mr. Hall did not say how the riders of one bicycle which they saw, built for four, fared on the antique roads. The Flemish people apparently do not mind the discomfort, for they noticed many tandems, on which, he said, the young people do their courting, and on some tandems were paniers with baby, complete! In Germany, the hotels were clean and many of them ultra-modern in design; but Mr. and Mrs. Hill. found it difficult to eat with relish sausages and saurkraut, the national dishes. Arms in every town leaped to 45-degree angles when troops rode past, and the swastika was worn by most people. As neither he nor his wife spoke German, it was natural that they met with amusing situations.

But English is sometimes understood. Mr. Hill tells the story of an English girl in Germany who wished to buy a glass of milk by pantomime. She mooed and they brought her a toy cow. She shook her head and they brought her cowbells. In desperation she cried "Milk," and, of course, got it immediately. Mr. and Mrs. Hill journeyed down the Rhineland, passing through country which has been the inspiration for many paintings, books and operas. They found it to be indeed a fairyland, with some of the most wonderful sights in the world -‘"it looksk like a picture from the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm," Mr. Hill said. Leaving Ger-

many, the travellers pedalled into the rustic quiet of France, in the lovely Valley of the Marne. Yet everywhere in the sleepy countryside they saw the scars of the War to end all War -the old, overgrown trenches where men fought and died, more eloquent than any war memorial, They passed through the bright, busy morning markets in the village squares, along more cobbled streets, picturesque even if unsettling,

and along roads where children caught the myriads of snails infesting the sides. And when they finally left on the boat at Boulogne, returning to England, they agreed there could be few more pleasant places to live in than a Frence village-such a village, say, as Cleremont, where, as in most of the villages of the East of France, the usual occupation of the inhabitants se emdot be "leaning out of the window ,or standing in the doorway watching nothing happening in the village street." On their return to England, the sturdy tandem was sold for £5 less than its original cost. Cheap travelling for nearly 2,000 miles! Roy Hill will be heard in songs by the New Zealand composer, Gordon McBeth, with the composer at the piano, on Wednesday, July 19, from 2YC Wellington.