I've seen London!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Earlier this month, Mouse_Spouse and I took a 10 day trip to the United Kingdom!

This trip had a lot of firsts for me: first passport, first trip overseas, first two-week vacation. Mouse_Spouse has had a lot more international traveling experience than I; as a high school student he was apart of the Student Ambassador Program and he went to college in Germany.

We spent four days in London. It was amazing! (To my ignorant U.S. American eyes). Random thoughts:
“Way Out”? What does that mean? Oh! Its an Exit!
Wow, lots of coins. Bare with me, I’m still trying to figure out which one to use. . .
Tower of London had the ravens out! (A few months back, they were moved indoors to protect them from the bird flu.)
I wish we had more time.

Then we spend four days in Edinburgh. More random thoughts:
I couldn’t understand anyone with a thick Scottish accent. :frowning: Sorry.
Great castles! (We took a day trip to Steriling as well.)
Haggis isn’t so bad. (I’m from Louisiana. Fried alligator, squirrel stew and blood sausage are not that different from sheep bits and oatmeal.)

I better get back to work. Just wanted to gush about our trip.

2

London rocks my world. Easily the best tourist-trap town I’ve ever visited.

We did the London->Edinburgh->Inverness->Nottingham->London thing by train. Compared to the trains (mostly light rail) I’ve used in the U.S., British trains are surprisingly quiet and clean.

At first, the coins were very cool. I love the two-tone 2 pounders. But then you quickly accumulate an ungodly amount of them. About a week into the trip, I learned why they call it “pocket change” - you need to change out all the pants in your wardrobe because the weight of the coins tears out the pockets! :wink:

As dumb Americans, we constantly got lost, but everyone we asked for directions were both friendly and helpful.

We caught nighttime festivities in London’s Picadilly Circus at night - I don’t know what the occasion was, but the streets were blocked off from vehicular traffic and there were tons of artists and street performers. We had a blast.

Edinburgh was fun too, but the place I really enjoyed in Scotland was Inverness. The Loch Ness Monster stuff wasn’t in your face, and the town itself was pretty quiet and clean. Very friendly, of course, but then it’s a tourist town.

Oh, going back to Edinburgh - if you (a) like bagpipes and marching bands and (b) get a chance to see the Tattoo, please do.

I didn’t have so much a problem understanding the brogue, except when it was an announcement over a scratchy PA speaker. But then I doubt anyone really listens to those anyways.

I never did work up the courage to try haggis, though I did confuse a pub waitress when I asked what a baguette was. (I didn’t know, and she was speechless that someone wouldn’t know. :))

When I’m rich enough to my a country, it’s going to be the U.K.

3

You have to get used to buying things just with coins, rather than using banknotes like you do in the US. With three or four coins, you can buy yourself a whole meal.

(And it’s easier to work out in advance what coins you need, because the prices quoted are inclusive of VAT, rather than the situation in the US, where you get a sales tax in a fractional percentage added on to the quoted price.)

4

Mouse_Spouse wants to see the Tattoo very, very badly. :smiley: (He wore his ancestors’ tartan for our wedding )

I wanted to see Inverness, and Stonehedge, but we couldn’t fit it in. :frowning: Good reason to save up for another trip. :smiley:

5

Have you seen France?

Have you seen Tuba’s Underpants?
Sorry, I was channeling my Inner Child for a second.

I’m back now.

6

Hey! Stop stealing my posts! :mad: :mad:

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Well, this was our honeymoon, so a variety of underpants were seen . . . :cool:

8

I WILL live in the UK someday. I loved my trip, as I’ve posted before. I felt very much at home there.