# The closest I'll ever get to London... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 15, 2000, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743 "2000-12-15T15:20:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![struuter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@struuter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/struuter)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/1 "2000-12-15T15:20:50Z")
…is the thick blanket of fog I can see through my window right now. (Pause for laughter directed at ignorant American’s stereo-typical ideas of London) _sigh_ Cut me some slack. Nebraska is all I’ve got to work with. Apologies to any who’ve been to London, seen fog or anything in any way related that may have been unintentionally slighted by my statements. But it’s beautiful out there. Just beautiful. (First time I’ve ever wanted one of my threads to die quickly…) ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/2 "2000-12-15T15:52:23Z")
Bump 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/3 "2000-12-15T15:55:20Z")
It was foggy here this morning as well. Like the inside of a ping-pong ball. Why is the fog the closest you’ll ever get to London, **struuter**? ---
**Author:** ![struuter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@struuter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/struuter)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/4 "2000-12-15T16:00:09Z")
Well, let’s put it this way–unless you do like super head advises and win the lottery…I’ll be sitting here. 🙂 Actually, it’s always been one of my dreams to travel to the United Kingdom, but life, you know, has a knack of getting in the way. Maybe some day in the distant future. After I write the great American novel. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/5 "2000-12-15T16:21:12Z")
I can relate. I’ve been saying I’ll get back to Europe “real soon,” but it hasn’t happened yet. I’m po’. ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/6 "2000-12-15T16:47:16Z")
I’m sure if you _really_ want to visit London, there are ways and means. Get a cheap flight, say $300 (I’ve not had to pay much more than this for trans-atlantic flights, but I can usually be flexible about dates), be real nice to the London dopers, one of them will put you up surely, do all the budget stuff, and bingo, change out of $600. It’s not much if you say it fast… Of course if you ever wanted to visit Manchester (why the hell would you, it just rains), my sofa is available rent free! ---
**Author:** ![struuter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@struuter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/struuter)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/7 "2000-12-15T16:49:24Z")
Back to Europe? BACK to Europe? Hmmph. I watch Masterpiece Theatre and BBC…that’s the closest I get. Oh, and I did grow up on Monty Python. How depressing…the fog’s even lifting. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/8 "2000-12-15T17:03:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by struuter \* > **…is the thick blanket of fog I can see through my window right now. > … Cut me some slack. Nebraska is all I’ve got to work with…Just beautiful.(** I’m not sure I understand this. Is it, “fog is beautiful, London has fog, therefore London is beautiful”? Truly, I’m not being sarcastic, just vaguely perplexed and amused. 🙂 Well, I gather it means **struuter** is cheesed off and wants a trip abroad. I can sort of sympathise, really. Would it help at all to hear that I don’t think London is beautiful\* (although fog is), the stereotypical fog you have in mind might be the horribly dangerous smog that tended to kill people and doesn’t really happen any longer, and that from my transatlantic point of view, Nebraska sounds terribly exotic? No? OK, I though it might not help, but it was all I could think of. Poor bunny. Next year in Jerusalem - well, London, then. - Maybe shouldn’t have said that - just subjective opinion. Hard to think of cities as beautiful at all really. ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/9 "2000-12-15T17:13:22Z")
As I peer out of the window it’s definitly NOT foggy. I guess we’re not in London any more, Toto. ---
**Author:** ![struuter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@struuter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/struuter)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/10 "2000-12-15T18:30:29Z")
The fog is beautiful–or was–it’s lifted a little. And, like the Yank I am–having no decent idea save for what I’ve seen in movies and read about it books. A true ignoramous. You have my shame-faced permission to include me in that thread about how stupid some people are. I _imagine_ that London is beautiful. I think the fog is mysterious and captivating, a truly romatic idea, and since there is fog in London, and it is so far away…I think to be there in the fog would be nice. Not so much, perhaps, geographically…but the atmosphere there. Nebraska is a lovely, wide-open land. And you think it’s exotic–that makes me feel special. What it is NOT is fast-paced and thrill-a-minute. Yes, it has been called boring. Yes…that’s not entirely false. But, as I think you’ve intimated in your post, it’s all in your perspective. I invite you to come and decide for yourself. ---
**Author:** ![zyzzyva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@zyzzyva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zyzzyva)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/11 "2000-12-15T19:13:29Z")
I never saw any fog in London. Shortly after i moved to San Francisco, a friend of mine from here said that, “Unline London, San Francisco’s fog isn’t overrated.” My response was, “Unlike London, San Francisco’s fog won’t kill you either.” Was only in London for about a week, so i couldn’t tell you what it’s like all the time, but i’d say there are better places to go for fog. ---
**Author:** ![struuter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@struuter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/struuter)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/12 "2000-12-15T19:38:24Z")
Okay, you guys are seriously bumming me. I mean, I know we’re here to fight ignorance and all…but holy moly. Can’t a girl hold on to her dream? _sigh_ So this is what we’ve got so far: London may or may not have fog. At best it’s not dependable. What fog it does have is dangerous, in which case it doesn’t appear to be ‘natural’ fog. Have I got this right? My fog here is retreating to the south so I don’t even have that anymore. I think I’m done with fog. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/13 "2000-12-15T19:51:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by struuter \* > **So this is what we’ve got so far: London may or may not have fog.** But it definately has at least one American werewolf 😛 ---
**Author:** ![struuter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@struuter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/struuter)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/14 "2000-12-15T20:21:49Z")
xizor, does it yet? Is this not the very same werewolf who went on to pitch Dr. Pepper back here in the states? Or was that pre-London? Either way, it doesn’t look too good. android209, I’m so sorry. I completely missed your second post. That offer is terribly sweet–and I would love to visit Manchester, rain or no. But trips abroad are not looking too plausible for me–as I have three kids who I’m quite sure would not fit on your couch. 😉 (We’d make my husband sleep in the car…nah, couldn’t do that.) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Teeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Dr.Teeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Teeth)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/15 "2000-12-15T23:30:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by struuter \* > \*\*Okay, you guys are seriously bumming me. I mean, I know we’re here to fight ignorance and all…but holy moly. Can’t a girl hold on to her dream? > _sigh_ > \*\* Keep holding on. I grew up in the Western US and am an unabashed Anglophile. Because I have kind parents, I was able to do a 6-month Study Abroad in London. I was a London fanatic before I went. Had the city all prettied up in my head, along with the rest of the British Isles. Know what? It lived up to my expectations. Entirely. So much so that I went back to York (on my own coin this time) for grad school. Highlights of my two stints include: seeing Dustin Hoffman in _Merchant of Venice_, walking home through a dark and gloomy Hyde Park after prowling around the British Museum all day, camping in the Peak District with 25 British friends and swapping inane jokes around the campfire, and finding the Oxford pub that Tolkien and CS Lewis haunted. 'Course, if it makes you feel better, I am now embarking into my child-having days and don’t go anywhere more exciting than the grocery store, or to the university to teach an occasional class. I can’t see that changing for a looooong time. You’ll get there, struuter. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/16 "2000-12-15T23:51:35Z")
I was in London last February, and I fell in love with it. Didn’t see any fog, either . . . it rained almost the entire time I was there! ---
**Author:** ![super\_head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@super\_head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/super_head)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/17 "2000-12-16T23:04:04Z")
… he’s just hoping that I’ll get divorced, marry yet another British woman, and then fly his little butt on over again for the ceremony. Well, fat chance mister! My wife would kill me if I married someone else. …but in line with some other posts, trips to Europe are really cheap if you travel in the off-season and do some searching. Putting aside $20 every week will provide you more than enough for a trip to Europe each year. …the most important thing we can learn from trips to the UK is that anything called a pub in the USA generally isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![struuter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@struuter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/struuter)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2000, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/18 "2000-12-18T14:33:16Z")
Well, thank you all for the good advice about saving up, etc. I’d love to go once without my kids–I know that sounds awful of me, but I’d love to take my time and see the things I want to see without benefit of having to entertain my enchanting offspring. I would, obviously, want to take them at some point… I suppose it’s a nice perspective if you can look out your window and remember that somewhere someone wants to be where you are. Thanks again for the advice. ---
**Author:** ![fierra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58956e/32.png) [@fierra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fierra)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2000, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/19 "2000-12-18T15:25:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zyzzyva \* > **"Unlike London, San Francisco’s fog won’t kill you either."** What do you think it is, something out of James Herbert? It wasn’t foggy in London on Sunday, but it was by the time I got back to Hemel Hempstead. Since it was dark by then, it sneaked up without me being aware of it, until I got out of the train and the street lights were just orange haloes in the damp night gloom. Today, it is clear, but it is getting dark already and the sky is pure grey, like recycled paper, or a colour wash of water colours. The naked trees are standing starkly symmetrical against the skyline, but the ground is still green and lush…too lush in some places, as a bare ploughed field near here has had a new streambed carved out of it, thanks to the rains bursting the old stream bed…most of the local floods have gone down, but the new stream still runs through the field. I shall be going home soon to the last of my present wrapping, and tea and crumpets… Fierra, not trying to make you too jealous, but to give you a taste of what it is actually like…oh & you will get fog anywhere that there is a temperature inversion…if you get a copy of one of the Monet London Fog prints & look hard at it & then half squint out of the window when it is foggy…you might imagine yourself there for a little while. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2000, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-closest-ill-ever-get-to-london/45743/20 "2000-12-18T15:34:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dr.Teeth \* > \*\*…and finding the Oxford pub that Tolkien and CS Lewis haunted. > \*\* That’s the Eagle and Child, on St. Giles Street, in case any of the rest of you would like to emulate Dr. Teeth’s experience. After you’ve been there, cross the street to The Lamb and Flag. Then there’s The King’s Arms, where part of the movie _The Saint_ was filmed, and not far away is the Turf, the best pub in Oxford. There’s also The Bear, the oldest surviving pub in southern England (over 700 years old), The Turl (closest pub to my college) and the Three Goats’ Heads near the Oxford Union. Oh, and every college in Oxford has its own bar too. Hey, I just thought of something I’ll miss in Oxford ☹