Dave you will love this trip. I spent a semester of college living in London. You will enjoy the Tower of London for sure. I do suggest taking the bus a few times for shorter trips while in London. the Tube( or subway) is great but you don't get a real feel for the city while on the underground trains. I thought they were a little harder to figure out routes but worth it if you ask me. I also saw that you might go to Paris. it would be very easy to take the nearest underground train to the Eurostar train station and go right into Paris then use their subway system once there. then you wouldn't have to mess with rental cars at all while traveling to Paris. the Eurostar is a good experience and a fun way to travel. I was there for 5 months and never got in a car that wasn't public transportation.
My Redneck European Adventure
- Thread starter Dave N
- Start date
We'll probably use the bus quite a bit. I don't mind walking and exploring, but sooner or later my wife gets tired and that's the end of that! Bad knees, ankles, etc. Routes, that's the thing. We have to figure out WHAT we want to see, then how to get there, what else we could be doing, on and on. We're not spending a lot of time in London and have a tour scheduled at Buckingham already. Looks like a few highlights and walk around for a while then we'll be on our way back home. Too much to see! We decided to skip Paris and go to Ireland instead. Made sense for the travel route we planned out to go there instead of passing through London to go over then come back for the last couple of days. No back-tracking this way.
Melman, if you have any tips for good eats in the middle of London I'm all ears! I'm not going to worry about dieting while on vacation!
Melman, if you have any tips for good eats in the middle of London I'm all ears! I'm not going to worry about dieting while on vacation!
Ireland is even a better choice than Paris. one of my favorite trips I did was a 3 day guided tour of Ireland. http://vagabondtoursofireland.ie/ For eats in London, I basically tried fish and chips a lot to see who had the best. always a safe order in any pub. The one restaurant I miss the most was Pizza Express https://www.pizzaexpress.com/ not really a fast food pizza place as the name suggests but great "gourmet" style pizza kinda like California Pizza kitchen if you've ever eaten there. I recommend it.
devon deer
Well-known member
We are out of the EU!
Buy your British pounds now, our currency has crashed!
Obama finally did you a favour, he tried to threaten us British if we left the EU!
Who does he think he is?
Not that his intervention made a single jot of difference to my decision, well maybe just a little!
Cheers
Richard
Southwind
New member
Dave,
As Devon just reported, your US dollar is going to stretch a little further. No matter what you hear from the media right now I certainly wouldn't bank on what they say. If it were me I would probably trade a little cash now and watch it.
Enjoy your time.
As Devon just reported, your US dollar is going to stretch a little further. No matter what you hear from the media right now I certainly wouldn't bank on what they say. If it were me I would probably trade a little cash now and watch it.
Enjoy your time.
Time for another highly technical question. Cell phones. While I'm there, what do I do about the country codes? If I text my wife that I killed one do I have to add anything to her number? Same for someone back in the states. Since I'm using a U.S. phone number, do I still need to add the code for someone back home? Do I need to do anything different to phone Richard or anyone else while in the UK?
devon deer
Well-known member
Not sure i can answer that one Dave.
As soon as you land you should receive a message from the cell phone company in the UK that works with your current provider.
All i can say is when i went to Montana last time i had programmed all my MT contacts into my phone prior to leaving the K without the international codes, when i made a call the phone detected i was using it in another country and just dialed the number as normal, but of course, it was at international rates so be careful!
Whatsapp is a great thing to use for texts/picture messaging, just make sure you have free wi-fi to use it over, i.e the hotels wi-fi
Cheers
Richard
As soon as you land you should receive a message from the cell phone company in the UK that works with your current provider.
All i can say is when i went to Montana last time i had programmed all my MT contacts into my phone prior to leaving the K without the international codes, when i made a call the phone detected i was using it in another country and just dialed the number as normal, but of course, it was at international rates so be careful!
Whatsapp is a great thing to use for texts/picture messaging, just make sure you have free wi-fi to use it over, i.e the hotels wi-fi
Cheers
Richard
Southwind
New member
get the viber app (free), as long as you are on wifi and those you call have the app you can call and text for free.
Well, I'm REALLY old-school. I still use an old flip phone, AKA "stupid" phone. No apps for me! My wife will be using an international roaming plan for her smart phone. I'm not planning on calling too many folks, mainly a few texts, so my charges shouldn't be too bad. She'll be posting to Facebook and sending pics back home. I mostly rely on emails for keeping in touch once we're settled in for the night. So unless Richard adds some pics to my thread during the day any updates will happen later on that evening, assuming I'm able to be awake long enough to load pics to my laptop first!
Southwind
New member
I just crossed over to the dark side last year. My wife thought I was the last person to still use a flip phone. I have to admit that it is awful handy.
Cheers
Cheers
devon deer
Well-known member
I forgot to add, checkout this pub chain, cheap drinks and food, but it's all good https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/
I will leave the pics to you, having said that i might put a couple on my personal FB page that a couple of people on here might see before you post.
Cheers
Richard
I will leave the pics to you, having said that i might put a couple on my personal FB page that a couple of people on here might see before you post.
Cheers
Richard
Dave, we really enjoyed going to The Globe Theater for a performance. I'm not a theatrical type person but there's something about being in THE theater that Shakespeare was associated with is special. Kinda like I felt at the Ford theater in Washington....this is THE PLACE. I loved bangers and mash, good eats. I did order a sausage and egg biscuit at Hardy's in the Eurostar station. When I opened up the biscuit expecting to see a sausage patty, it looked like a crippled coon had defecated on my biscuit. It ended up being a weird colored sausage spiraled on there. Tasted OK, once I was able to put the imagery out of my mind.
Note to Southwind: my darkside equipment is charging at home right now just received it yesterday.....bye flip phone!!
Note to Southwind: my darkside equipment is charging at home right now just received it yesterday.....bye flip phone!!
if I were you I'd call your cell phone provider and ask about texting etc.
if you eat anywhere and they have blood pudding on the menu I'd try it. I had it while staying in a bed and breakfast in Ireland and it was really good. its a sausage made with blood as you can guess. looks really dark but is tasty
if you eat anywhere and they have blood pudding on the menu I'd try it. I had it while staying in a bed and breakfast in Ireland and it was really good. its a sausage made with blood as you can guess. looks really dark but is tasty
Nemont
Well-known member
I took my whole family to Europe last summer. We are on Verizon and I just went online and updated my plan to the international plan. Tell your wife to download Whatsapp on her phone on use that to send SMS to your family. I don't know about texting from a flip phone so you will have to ask your carrier.
Nemont
Nemont
I would still have a flip phone if the antique camera in mine was still working. I upraded to a phone with a keyboard but it is not smart phone. There is nothing so important out there that I need to have a pocket computer so I can check face-book every 5 minutes like a lot of people. Oh yea I don't do face-book either.
devon deer
Well-known member
We call it black pudding, an acquired taste, but i love it fried and served up with a full English breakfast!
Cheers
Richard
devon deer
Well-known member
Just an update Dave, a few people have seen some early signs of the Roe Buck rut, if it keeps up you just might have timed your visit to perfection!
The grass and crops are crazy high at the moment causing a slight problem, but hopefully the grass will soon be cut, in any case i have a caller which might work to call in a buck.
I am going out later, i need some venison!
Cheers
Richard
The grass and crops are crazy high at the moment causing a slight problem, but hopefully the grass will soon be cut, in any case i have a caller which might work to call in a buck.
I am going out later, i need some venison!
Cheers
Richard
Sounds good! Maybe a little bit of luck on my side of the pond as far as vacation time goes will work out in my favor on that side! I know you will be paying more attention to things as the date gets closer. We fly out 2 weeks from tomorrow. Time is really going fast now! It won't be long and I'll be arguing with the wife about what we can pack in the luggage! Pretty sure I have everything squared away for what I need.
Good luck bringing home dinner!
Good luck bringing home dinner!
devon deer
Well-known member
The roe rut usually starts when we get humid hot conditions....they have forecast those exact conditions next weekend!
Loaded up some more .243 ammo with 100 grain bullets this afternoon.
Don't worry about bringing bino's as i have a spare set.
I will confirm that the rifle is zeroed this week (it worked last week!)ready for us to hit the road running, no need for you to have practice before you go unless you really feel the need.
Any last minute questions ask away.
Cheers
Richard
Loaded up some more .243 ammo with 100 grain bullets this afternoon.
Don't worry about bringing bino's as i have a spare set.
I will confirm that the rifle is zeroed this week (it worked last week!)ready for us to hit the road running, no need for you to have practice before you go unless you really feel the need.
Any last minute questions ask away.
Cheers
Richard
