“This can’t be true. What’s the catch?
Well, OK, there’s one important condition. You’ll have to learn Esperanto. The application form is in Esperanto, the address list is in Esperanto, and all hosts speak Esperanto.”
Seeing that we’re going to be there in less than 36 hours, this could be prohibitive LOL
Bloody hell, Anthracite, that was totally out of order. I should think I have just as much right to express an opinion on the cost of a hotel room or a cooked breakfast and the comparative reliability of different Tube lines in the city where I live as an occasional business traveller, even if you have visited all of 20 times. Especially when the business traveller is demonstrably wrong on a number of points.
Uhh…OK, please cite where I even implied you didn’t have a right to express your opinion? And did you miss my other posts here too? Where I said I felt stupid? Obviously you must have. I guess you were just trying to score some cheap points, rather than read what I said. :rolleyes:
Look at our two quotes above. Then fucking calm down, OK?
I am perfectly calm; I was just taken aback by your sarcastic and vituperative response to my comments.
You did not imply that, as such. You implied that your opinion, based on 20 or more visits to the city, was somehow more valid than mine, based on eight years of continuous residence.
I’m sure you’d seek to correct me if I started posting materially inaccurate observations about your home town.
Excuse me, but are you kidding?
In my response, I said the following things:
I agreed with you in that you were correct, they were prices at 4-5 star hotels. I noted that the English definition of “4 star” is somewhat close to the American definition of “2 star” (added now in case you are unfamiliar with the relative quality of Econo-Lodges)
I asked why you claim that the Picadilly line is less reliable than any other - if it was a subjective statement or not. You did not answer.
IMO, your point-by-point made it look like I had never been to London. It made it look like I have been doing everything the wrong way, and thus it looks like I just dropped off the farm wagon in the big city. So listen up. As to my
It was a snide remark against myself! Get it now? I was saying how from my actions, it would seem I had never even been there, since I pay way too much and don’t seem to know that much about some things. And I said later on about feeling stupid, and you either missed or ignored the significance of that.
You also missed or ignored my “little voice” comment as well - about how I knew I shouldn’t have posted.
But no, see…now you’ve come back to jump all over me, so you can tear me down, have me admit that having an excess of funds available when travelling makes me a stupid traveler, and that thus my suggestions here were all crap. Happy now? I thought this was well covered before by yours and other’s posts telling me how wrong I was. I guess not.
Just keep at it, though. I’m here all week.
OK, I do get it now. In fact, I placed completely the opposite construction on the comment, which is why I responded in the way I did. Sorry.
It appears that I did, for which I also apologise.
TomH, let’s not quarrel anymore. Besides - when I come back to London soon, I’m going to ask you where exactly I can get a decent breakfast cheap. 
I do a pretty good breakfast, love 
Opal - I don’t know if this information is too late, but if you’re going to North Wales, I really hate Dolgellau. It’s ugly. It’s surrounded by huge heaps of slate slag. You’d be much better off staying in Llanberis (which is right at the foot of Snowdon, Wales’s highest mountain, which does have a steeam train up it, so your walking ability wouldn’t be a problem) & also has a little lake train & an HEP power station to go round, and is right in the middle of really nice scenery.
It’s only 12 miles from the coast (Caernarfon, with its castle) & not far from the bridges across to Anglesey. There’s the Anglesey Sea Zoo, there is (or was, I haven’t been for a while) a vegetarian cafe in Menai Bridge (it’s the town nearest one of the 2 bridges across) which does gorgeous food, heavenly soup & delicious drinking chocolate, there’s the museum of childhood & a castle in Beaumaris & a lot of nice beaches. You could also go to Portmeirion, where they make nice pottery & where The Prisoner was filmed. It’s a very pretty italianate village, on the North Wales coast line.
It depends on what you are interested in. If you do want to see a play, and you are going to pass through the midlands to wales or scotland, you could stop at Stratford on Avon & see a play there, and do all the touristy stuff there - but you will have to pay tourist prices, unfortunately (& meet a lot of american tourists ).
If you are going through the midlands, derbyshire is beautiful - lots of pretty scenery & much of it visible from a car, there are lots of pull in places to enjoy views, etc. There’s also the Blue John mine in Castleton, which is the only source of Blue John in the world & lots of stately homes. You’re going to have way too much stuff do by now wherever you go, so I’ll stop now.
Have a good trip!
Fierra, about Dolgellau - how could you? When was the last time you were there?
I will admit the following however:[list=1][li]When talking about the splendour of North West Wales, I was referring to the villages on the coast. As far as Dolgellau itself is concerned, I was more recommending it as a possible stopping place, since the B&B I mentioned is really excellent. FWIW I agree that the town itself isn’t very nice. But the surrounding hills are lovely and it’s very quick and easy to get to the coast, where there are any number of other nice places.[/li]
Like I say, I tend to go in winter. That kind of scenery always looks very different at that time of year. I just rather like strolling along the beach when the wind is fresh and cold and the whole place has a rather melancholy air.[/list=1]pan
I lived in North Wales for three & a half years*, kabbes, I win!
As a place to stay, with your eyes closed, it’s probably fine ;), but there are definitely prettier places. I’ve been climbing, scuba diving & hill walking in all weathers. It still is ugly there.
Year in Bangor, year in Bethesda & a year & a half in Llanberis. Fond memories of Pete’s Eats & of the only 5 star restaurant in North Wales, Y Bistro (which may not still be there, I don’t know) and of The Heights, a pub with a climbing wall in it 
If you haven’t arrived yet (or if you have and are checking in from an iternet cafe) I would suggested trying to get towards lands end way, scenary is nice and it has lots of history - also in that area is Tintagel castle - supposidly where King Arthur was born. and lots more too.
Whever you end up try the local tourist board for informatoin on local attractions & events.
There are some great castles and olds houses here try and get too see some, whever you end up there will be somthing of this nature near by.
You will be hard pressed to do everything in just one visit, but Iguess you could say that about any place, also it might be worth checking ou a Lonly planet guide or something as they may be able to help you narrow down your choice of where to go, from a tourists prospective.
There is so much I could say about the UK but this is just one post.
Re. Wales I also recomend Llanberis .
Enjoy the trip.
Feh
(Oops. Obviously, that was addressed to Fierra)
Well, since Opal’s gone, and this thread is still around, I’d also like to ask for a bit of advice. My wife and I are heading to Italy in July, for about a 10 day trip. On the flight over, we have a 12 hour layover in London. We arrive at Heathrow at 7am, and don’t fly out till 7pm. I figure that I’ll take off an hour from the beginning, in case the flight is late, and 2 hours off the end, so we can check in for the connection in time…that still leaves about 9 hours to kill. While I know that we couldn’t hit much, it still seems a shame to be there for that amount of time, and not try and see anything. So, any advice on what we can and can’t see? The high points we shouldn’t miss? I know the train from the airport to downtown is like an hour, so we’ll keep travel time in mind, but still, I’m sure we can see a few things.
Hmm - July + picnic + 9 hours + Hyde park. Can’t think what I’d do with the time
Seriously - depends how historical/cultural you want to get. The Picadilly line from Heathrow will take you right to Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Picadilly Circus. From there, you can’t really miss.
If you want to do the really touristy stuff, try the Tower of London. If you want art, then I’d second L_C’s earlier suggestion of the Tate Modern. Personally, I’d probably hit the market and cafes of Covent Garden.
What day of the week are you getting in? If it’s the weekend, you could try Camden Market - that’s always good for a stroll.
Give us a hint - what do you like to do?
pan
I just wanted to second the suggestion regarding the Tower of London with its fantastic Beefeater tour! Very entertaining!
Also, L_C took us to the Tate Modern and I have to agree that it is wonderful! I just wish we would have had more time, in fact, that is one of the reasons I must return to London, to spend at least an entire day at the museum.
If you are into decorative artwork, by all means, go to Somerset House and see the priceless Gilbert Collections of
micromosaics and metalwork. This is probably the finest collections of its kind in the world. I especially recommend you check out the pietre dure Florentine tabletops, in which a strikingly realistic image is created by fitting together correctly colored marbles, agates, and alabasters.
Though I have never been to London, I am intimately familiar with this collection. How is that possible, you ask? Well, Arthur Gilbert is an Anglo-American real estate developer who for years–nay, decades–allowed our local museum in L.A. to display this collection. He was going to
give it to us as an outright gift, but in the end reneged on
his promise (never forget the difference between a gift and promise), and packed the whole thing back to Somerset House where it now resides. [qvetch] For this signal service to his homeland he was awarded a knighthood. Meanwhile back in SoCal, we’ve only asphalt and housing tracts to remember him by…what kind of award should we give him for that? [/qvetch].
At any rate, it was one of the highlights of our museum, and
if I were London-bound, I would make sure not to miss it.
PSSST! Hey, everybody! Let’s rearrange the States while Opal and UDD are gone! It’ll be a riot and totally mess with their heads!
Maybe we can switch Virginia with North Dakota. Wouldn’t you love to see their faces when they come home and the place is all surrounded with corn?
Ok, what I like to see. I’m usually more interested in buildings and historical sites. Although if there are any “Must See” pieces of artwork, I’d be willing to see if we can make it. The ferris wheel thing…can you make reservations online for that? I hear that it’s usually booked a long time in advance. I’m just looking at the ability to see as much of the “city” as we can. I don’t think we’ll really have enough time to do a museaum properly, but we can hit parts of those that are really worth it. We’ll be arriving the morning of the 20th, which is a Friday…and leaving that night around 7pm. Thanks for any suggestions.
Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) are next door to each other, by Westminster Tube Station.
From there, it’s about a 15-minute walk to Buckingham Palace: you can either go down Great George St and throught St James’s Park or take a slightly longer route up Whitehall and the Mall, which passes most of the major Government Departments (incuding Downing Street) and takes you through Trafalgar Square.
I haven’t tried it myself, but I understand that even when you book tickets in advance you can end up queueing for about half an hour. But given that it’s very near to the Houses of Parliament, if you were going in that direction anyway it might well be worth a shot.
Here’s the website: http://www.ba-londoneye.com
Here’s a map of the area. Buckingham Palace is the blue building on the western edge and the London Eye is just off the eastern edge of the map, on the other side of the river.
Assuming you get to central London by 9.00 or 9.30 am, you should be able to fit all those things in by lunchtime and still have plenty of time to see something else in the afternoon.