August 1948 saw us onboard a ship, the Suecia to Gotenburg Sweden, from there we went by train to Stockholm.

Apart from the fact that Stockholm was a very open and modern city, the thing that we noticed immediately was the food. There was meat rationing, but apart from that, everything was there that we had missed for years. We went crazy.

The theatre was called the "Cirkus Theatre" and the moment we entered it we knew why. The smell of the last circus show was there. The elephants and the lions and tigers. It was forgotten before long.

The theatre was like those seen in Lautrec paintings, circus in the round. In this situation the space was flexible, so that it could be a circus or a theatre, depending on how the seating was placed.

No hotel rooms, we were billeted, with breakfast supplied.

Six of us were there in the same place.

The host loved his beer mixed with rubbing alcohol.

One night he told us that he was a genealogist. He had been drinking too much, and the story of how he had worked for the British when they were winning the war, or the Germans when they were winning. The information he passed on was, who was, or who was not, Jewish. He played a game that had for some, devastating results.

The performances went well, we had good reviews.

There was only one aspect of the tour which was like being in Britain, there was no hot water. A cold shower after every performance.

Behind the Cirkus Theatre there was a park called Skansen, open spaces, but also a magnificent zoo. It was there that I saw for the first time in my life a section on rats. There were Paris Sewer rats that were the size of a Canadian Beaver, with teeth to match. Also rats from all over the world.

We met dancers from the Swedish Ballet, but did not see them perform, unfortunately.

From Stockholm we went on to Norrkoping, an industrial town, then Malmo and Halsingborg.

The good times were over when we went to Oslo in Norway.

Sweden had been neutral during the war, Norway was occupied.

We could see that Oslo had been a great city, but the war had taken it’s toll.

There were still stores, but there was nothing in them.

For our stay there, we ate fish, drank fake coffee and had cream cakes for our morale. That was the diet of the average Norwegian.

The theatre was good, the audiences loved us.

On one occasion we were invited by the British Embassy to a party. This made us feel even worse.

They had absolutely everything at the embassy, while the rest of the country had virtually nothing.

One stop in Goteborg, then off to Tilbury on the Brittania.

Back in London at East Sheen I tried squeeze in as much as possible in the week that I had left.

A class with Vera Volkova, a performance of the Ballet Champs Elysee. Celebrate the 16^th birthday of Svetlana Beriosova.

Say my goodbyes, a very sad moment.

On the 25^th of September I took the 8:45 from Euston Station to Liverpool., then sailed on board the Ascania for Montreal.

Things were fine until we got over Ireland, then the rolling started.

The rough seas last for seven days.