We continued our Saturday tour of London by walking up to Piccadilly Circus (the “Times Square” of London) in time for the 4 pm matinee of The 39 Steps at the Criterion Theatre. The 600-seat theater is entirely underground and has been around, in one form or another, since 1874. Our seats were comfy and in a good location. The 1915 novel The 39 Steps has been made into three movies, including Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 classic, and is the story of an innocent man thrown into a spy intrigue, accused of murder, and pursued across England.
We topped off our evening with a nice Italian dinner at one of the ASK branches in London and then went to Paddington to get our train back to Reading. However… the soccer fans we’d encountered in the morning were now returning, too. They were also in a sullen mood because they’d lost. Luckily, special trains had been laid on just for them and a serious number of policemen were there to keep things orderly. After a bit of confusion about which train was going where, we boarded the right train and found police on board it, too, which is pretty unusual. But the soccer fans were pretty subdued, which was a blessing, and our ride home was uneventful.
All in all, we had a very nice day out and I, for one, slept quite soundly that night!