[TAG] Re: [Lgang] England was nice

[Heather Stern]

> I don't know about groups, but if you're travelling as an individual I'd
> highly recommend a Britrailpass unless you're sure you'll be staying in
> London the whole time.  That's what Didier and I did in 2002.  
 
London wasn't my primary spot, we were in outlying spaces, it was a
destination.  It did rate *some* visits.

If a customer ever drags me out that way, they get to buy the pass, and
that's an ahead of time thing, just like they'd get to buy the flight tix.

> railpass.com is where I got my pass.  I got the GB-only pass. 

Hmm, I'll have to compare their price against the other one :)

I was trying to see just how cheap I could squeak by;  by the numbers it's a
kinda close squeak but I made the right pick.

> My worst experience flying was when I went to Scranton, Pennsylvania this
> summer.  The original flight was delayed due to a storm in the southeast,
> so I got to Dulles ten minutes after my connecting flight left.  . . .
> so I had another two-hour layover in another old, inconvenient airport
> ...[luggage]... and a courier brought it way out to my campsite.

What I affectionately referred to with my travel agent, when I still used
one, as "luggage class".

Our worst trip on the land side was flying across Y2K weekend.  Everyone was
nervous as heck.  Security really were searchign everyone and jumpy too.
The weather fogged in and delayed flights so even people who'd been checked
as much as they were going to be were being all fretty.  I can't say I was a
perfect sunbeam myself, and sad to say I was better than most.

Our worst trip itinerary-wise was a multiple thing, first with family in 
Chicago IL (the real origin of *my* red hat), then to a conference in San 
Antonio TX, then a wedding in Laramie WY (by means of a flight to Denver 
then a small puddle jump to a closer airport).  Our luggage had a different
itinerary than we did; we recieved the wedding presents sent to us at San
Antonio (deliberately, we had Terry send them, and our "nice clothes" so
they could be carry-ons for the rest), sending our dirty laundry home direct
rather than making it follow us to the midwest.  The effort to travel
lighter on the later leg paid off;  there was mechanical issues on the
puddle jumper and we opted out, it being faster to get the heck out and
drive it instead rather than to wait for them to give up and then ponder how
to treat us right.  Then our luggage got delayed getting out, because they
really did decide that plane wasn't flying, and that changed which carousel
our bag was headed for.  *sigh*  But the wedding went great.

> > I got some money exchanged
> 
> The best exchange rate is at the ATMs in the destination country.  Try to
> avoid spending money till you get to one, or use a credit card.

Yeah, that'll have to go in 2c tips for travellers, I think.

> > If you ever go, don't assume you can buy a ticket on the train - you can,
> > but while here maybe it's a buck penalty, the penalty fare there is really
> > stiff.
> 
> The San Mateo Caltrain is the same way. :)

I *didn't* do anything so foolish as to do that; I just gasped when I saw
the listing for the penalty fare.  It's damn near as bad as riding the line
from tail to terminus.
 
> AFAICT, Railtrack is a national company that maintains the rails and also
> sells passes to foreigners.  The trains are run by seven or eight regional
> companies, but you can get tickets and schedules for any train at any
> station.  Brits complain their train system has been so neglected it's the
> worst in Europe, but it's ten times better than our train service and five
> times better than our bus service, so who's to complain?  Except that
> there are no night routes except London-Edinburgh.

Interesting.  I described our doubledeck Caltrain to Thomas, and he said
(a vague hand waved toward a foot-way overhead *clearly* meant for single 
deck trains to pass under) that wasn't likely to be offered in England.
Even if there weren't so many derails.  Then he got all shy and said he
really shouldn't describe such things when I was about to hop on a train. 
Heh.   I told him about some terrible results I'd heard of here in
California too.  I hope he didn't worry too much about me that day.
 
> What??  Our bars don't have cowboy themes.  I guess everybody likes
> somebody else's pubs and finds them exotic, and the proprietors respond by
> loading them with stereotypical kitsch.
 
*chuckle*

> Yeah, they were tiny, and not that strong.
 
Oh yeah, Thomas said the candied ginger I brought from Trader Joe's was
thrice as strong as any he could get there, in addition to being huge pieces
instead of tiny bits.  One flatmate couldn't easily handle more than one
piece at a go (although he liked it).  The other flatmate hates ginger
anyway and would have nothing to do with them.  Thomas, man after my own 
heart, loved 'em ;)  He's finished them off already, hehe.

Their Idris brand doesn't suck nearly as bad from the bottle as it does here
from a can.

> Wait till you see shredded curry chicken on french fries.  Now *that's*
> disgusting.  (This happened in Ireland.  They did even more inappropriate
> things with chips too.  I guess you can get everything with chips.)

chili cheese fries their style?  Uh, ok, I guess.   (Says the gal who
prefers to order chili and fries seperate, then dip the fries...)

> My friend in Bristol distiguished between chips (the proper British thing)
> and fries (the thing you get from McDonald's).  I blew up: "It's the same
> thing!!"

I grew up a short walking distance from a famous potato place (that happened
to sell sides of decently-sized burgers with their overloaded tray of fries) 
called The Shoestring.  Shoestring potatoes and "chips" as the brits put them 
seem to cook slightly differently anyway.  But McD's are reconstituted 
something or others, kinda like Sizzlean(tm) is to bacon.  Surely, there'd 
be many who *prefer* Sizzlean, but it's not bacon, not quite anyway.

Depends if to you taters is taters or you care about the diff between
potatoes from the tuber and reconsituted tater powder.  I know for me, if
it's mashed potatoes I rarely care, but I like eating the jacket along with
my potato, so I've always favored baked or chips, as just plain ol chopped 
up potatoes, to the sliver things that are shoestrings, and among The
Shoestring, liked the ones that used to be the outer potato the best.

Speaking of bacon, it's embarrassing.  Theirs looks like a decent sized slab 
of ham (if a bit thin) and a better cut than we use for it (our bacon's
really quite fatty) but has so much water packing you can see daylight
through them.  They shrink to only a little larger than ours do if you
sizzle them enough to boil the water off completely.  I told one of Jim's
colleagues at breakfast, if you want that on our side of the pond, ask for 
ham steak, not bacon, and expect to enjoy more of your meat.  Our bacon's 
tiny and crispy.

-* Heather Stern * star at starshine.org * The Answer Gang's Editor Gal *-
   The Linux Gazette (http://www.linuxgazette.net/) is under the LDP