Ship ahoy or How to get to London the difficult way

[Threviel]

Some general notes and observations on the trip and on London

HMS Belfast looks much older in design than I would have thought from pictures. She is a WWII ship built in 36-39 but to me looked more 1910s than I imagined beforehand.

Camden market is well worth a visit, the kids loved it with all the weird foreign food.

Meal Deals in the shops is very nice. It can be a very healthy lunch or, I suspect ore often, it can be a sandwich with crisps and a coke.

British candy and chocolate, unlike French or German, is good and we should have bought more.

Rich Tea biscuits is the shit when it comes to biscuits for coffee and tea.

London is the friendliest city ever, it's like being in the French countryside but I can also understand what people are saying.

Pub food is horrible, bangers and mash was just pukeworthy. Tasteless sausages and a mash you could build a house with.

Pubs in general are very nice, order at the bar and pay at the same time. No need to wait for snotty servers ignoring you.

When it comes to food in general it's a miracle that the Brits are not all obese. Unhealthy with lots of fat. White bread everywhere, otherwise you could eat something fried or deep fried. 

London in general fits my style. Everything was obvious and easy to understand.

British parks have more in common with prison yards than parks.

We went to Heathrow in very very good time, expecting long queues. No queues and everything went very well, meaning we spent 5 hours inside Heathrow.

I had time to read my book on the bus to Oslo. That's it.

Sea sickness does not look like fun, I wonder how they deal with it on navy ships.

Navy rum is hard to get hold of. Bought a gill measure cup at Greenwhich and then had a hard time getting hold of rum to use it with.

Going into a public toilet together with my kid in Primrose park there were two gay-looking guys coming out from the same stall looking sheepish.

Scotch eggs are amazing, absolutely amazing.

[garbon]

Camden Market

[Sheilbh]

Meal Deals in the shops is very nice. It can be a very healthy lunch or, I suspect ore often, it can be a sandwich with crisps and a coke.

Yes

British candy and chocolate, unlike French or German, is good and we should have bought more.

I agree on British sweets - I think with desserts it's something Britain does quite well. I like French and German ones but the American ones I've tried are inedible (Reese's ).

Rich Tea biscuits is the shit when it comes to biscuits for coffee and tea.

Love Rich Tea - especially as a dunker.

London is the friendliest city ever, it's like being in the French countryside but I can also understand what people are saying.

Wut? That seems very strange.

We went to Heathrow in very very good time, expecting long queues. No queues and everything went very well, meaning we spent 5 hours inside Heathrow.

This is a mistake I've made. I went for a quick holiday to Bulgaria and to see a friend in Greece - which was very exciting as my first trips out of the UK since covid hit. For every leg there's been no issues at the airport and I've just arrived 4-5 hours early

Although my flight from Athens was delayed for two hours because there was an air traffic restriction for some reason.

Scotch eggs are amazing, absolutely amazing.

Yes. The good home-made/pub ones that are freshly cooked with a soft egg in the middle are great.

[garbon]

I recently had someone tell me that like coke, they've only had Reese's once as they knew otherwise they would be addicted.

[Threviel]

British candy and chocolate, unlike French or German, is good and we should have bought more.

I agree on British sweets - I think with desserts it's something Britain does quite well. I like French and German ones but the American ones I've tried are inedible (Reese's ).

Yeah, lots of weird crap from the US, but also Mars  which is ok I guess. God damn, looking it up most of the good ones are British. Add the US to the list of bad candy.

London is the friendliest city ever, it's like being in the French countryside but I can also understand what people are saying.

Wut? That seems very strange.

Talked a bit about it when I came home and everyone I've talked to agrees. Londoners are nice and friendly, helpful and kind. When looking confused they even volunteer to help. Unlike Paris or especially Germans which are borderline hostile. To tourists that is.

Also the experience the day I manned the ship for visitors. Brits are friendly and funny.

Ohh, and an addendum to the list when thinking about unfriendly peoples. As usual when I'm encountering them I several times noted Spanish tourists behaving badly.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I've always found Londoners to be very friendly too. The main exception being at mainline stations during rush hour...but that is totally understandable...do not bugger about at London Bridge station at 8.45 if you can't take criticism 

[Gups]

I'm not a fan of rich tea for dunking. Too prone to collapse. A digestive is much better.

Susprised by the comments on London parks. I think they are superb and there are lots of them. I can't think of any other city that comes close.

Pub food in London has gone downhill quite badly in the last couple of years. There are a few good places but not that many in the centre.

[Threviel]

Susprised by the comments on London parks. I think they are superb and there are lots of them. I can't think of any other city that comes close.

Once you get through the barbed wire and mined approaches, sure...

Or more seriously there's fences everywhere, the parks seemed closed off until you found an entrance. The same with playgrounds, huge fences all around. Not used to that. But yeah, some of the parks were huge. And full of grey squirrels.

Otherwise the parks seemed nice, would probably be nicer if there had been some rain.

[Josquius]

Going into a public toilet together with my kid in Primrose park there were two gay-looking guys coming out from the same stall looking sheepish.

Gay looking how?
Cum around their mouths?

[Threviel]

Going into a public toilet together with my kid in Primrose park there were two gay-looking guys coming out from the same stall looking sheepish.

Gay looking how?
Cum around their mouths?

The well manicured stylish young men with ear piercings and short well kept hair coming hurriedly together out of a public toilet stall without flushing could of course have been anything.

It's probably my country boy imagination trying to create interesting events in the big city.

[mongers]

I'm not a fan of rich tea for dunking. Too prone to collapse. A digestive is much better.

Susprised by the comments on London parks. I think they are superb and there are lots of them. I can't think of any other city that comes close.

Pub food in London has gone downhill quite badly in the last couple of years. There are a few good places but not that many in the centre.

My friend you lack the finese of a true dunking aficionado. :tongue:

I've never had a problem with Rich tea, whereas some versions of malted milk biscuits can be rather tricky, unless you cheat and only dunk them in cocoa/drinking chocolate.

[garbon]

Going into a public toilet together with my kid in Primrose park there were two gay-looking guys coming out from the same stall looking sheepish.

Gay looking how?
Cum around their mouths?

The well manicured stylish young men with ear piercings and short well kept hair coming hurriedly together out of a public toilet stall without flushing could of course have been anything.

It's probably my country boy imagination trying to create interesting events in the big city.

I think he was questioning the 'gay-looking' as story would have been just as clear without that description.

[Josquius]

I'm not a fan of rich tea for dunking. Too prone to collapse. A digestive is much better.

Susprised by the comments on London parks. I think they are superb and there are lots of them. I can't think of any other city that comes close.

Pub food in London has gone downhill quite badly in the last couple of years. There are a few good places but not that many in the centre.

My friend you lack the finese of a true dunking aficionado. :tongue:

I've never had a problem with Rich tea, whereas some versions of malted milk biscuits can be rather tricky, unless you cheat and only dunk them in cocoa/drinking chocolate.

Rich tea is not suitable for dunking. Its like a glass biscuit, completely immune for a while then suddenly it just shatters.

[Sheilbh]

It's a risk for sure, but I still think it's very good for dunking.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I reckon they were trading football cards and suddenly realised that their behaviour might be misconstrued, hence the sheepishness.