Traveling to England for the first time: advice?

We’re you using a mobile app or going via a website?

I have been able to stream directly from iPlayer on the web all over the world - in Denmark last year for example - and I still can where I am now. And could last week in Thailand. Television shows are blocked outside the UK definitely, but not radio streams or podcasts. Usually I use TuneIn on my Android, but it works via browser too.

Send this link to someone in Sweden and get them to test it:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_fourfm

I can confirm that that works, right now, sitting in central Stockholm.

Strange - must have been me doing it through the iplayer app/my iphone then.

/digression

Oh, I thought of another thing that I don’t think anyone’s mentioned. I agree with the advice to just get money out of cash points (ATMs) once you get here, but if you do decide to get any before you arrive, ask them not to give you £50 notes. Many, many smaller places (shops, pubs etc) won’t accept them, just because they are (or have been in the past) commonly faked, and it’s a big hit especially for a small business. Also if you’re taking a bus anywhere, they’re likely not to take notes at all unless the fare is bizarrely huge. Even London buses often won’t change a £5, despite the single fare being £2.30.

This reminds me of a question, which probably isn’t related and if this isn’t the place then feel free not to answer: how do visually impaired people in the US tell what kind of money they have? Here all the notes are different sizes (£5 the smallest) so you can feel what the denomination is, but all American notes seem to be the same size. How does that work?

Ladies or gents if you want to sound refined :slight_smile:

Then again I used to drink in a Scottish pub where the ladies loo was the landlord’s bathroom – complete with the landlord’s socks dripping over the bath. Aah local colour.

Real mini cabs understand the caution: While looking for for a black cab on the outskirts of my city, where they were rare, I turned down a minicab and he called a black cab for me.

In a proper sandwich shop – where they make them to order – a salad sandwich is usually a bit more exciting. Lettuce, tomato and cucumber are the default, possibly joined by grated carrot, then they will ask you if you want onion, beetroot and maybe some other stuff and they pile the stuff high. You can have a *something *salad sandwich, ie ham, chicken, egg tuna etc, or just salad. If you do ask for egg or tuna there is a difference between plain egg or tuna or egg or tuna mayonaise (chopped up in mayonaise), try to be clear about which one you’re after. Another sandwich point, which I understand will please Americans, they ask if you want butter on your sandwich (by which they generally mean margerine, albeit a decent tasting spreading margerine).

Now, warranting a separate paragraph, is the kind of bread. There’s a lot of regional variation in what these are called: bread rolls, baps, breadcakes, pans, barms, batches, stotties, the list goes on and on. In the old days, when I was a wee ignorant teenager working in a sandwich shop, using the wrong one would be met with a slack jawed look of incomprehension, these days it’s best just to point… Seriously though, call the soft or crusty round ones rolls, the long soft ones subs and the long crusty ones baguetes and you’ll get by. Oh and specify white or wholemeal. Or just go to Subway, there’s plenty of them about.

Final note: a lot of dedicated sandwich shops (apart from the aforementioned Subway) close shortly after lunchtime.

Re-edited to add I see Brynda covered the mayonaise thing too.

This has been fun, as some of the differences are fun, but I know the OP knows the best advice of all: Blend in with the locals, watch what they do, try new things, etc. No one will care if you call something by the wrong name, they will only care if you throw a fit about it.

Brynda, who prefers mayo on sandwiches, but has eaten her share of ones made with butter with a smile

…and “Prêt à Manger” means “ready to eat” in French. Just like “Delicatessen” means “good eats” in German. I always like mentally taking the piss out of fancy foreign terms by translating them into what they really mean. If you read enough scientific stuff, you start noticing various word roots as well: “rhinoceros” = “nose-horn” and “hippopotamus” = “horse (of the) river” in Greek…

The “essen” part of delicatessen does not in fact derive from the German for “eat”. The word derives from the French délicatesse, delicacy.

If you’re visiting London consider the London Pass and Travelcard together. I’m a Londoner but have’t lived there for quite a few years, but I was visiting family last summer and did the tourist thing. With some planning and eating on the hoof I managed to see a lot of sights in a relatively short amount of time. Although I know the tube very well the planning beforehand was much more useful, as I wanted to visit many specific destinations during working hours only.

In three days you can see lots of sights around Tower Bridge, and also jump a few queues while you’re there, too. In five days you can see most of what London has to offer, if you plan right. You’ll probably miss the black pudding and spotted dick. Maybe next time, eh?

There once was a pub in London where the toilets were marked hearse and hymns.

I have visited England three times and loved every visit. However, I do think it’s fair to note that outside of London. many homes are not heated to American standards. We Amurricans generally find that an interior temperature of 65 degrees is not warm enough (nice temperature to unload beer trucks or do gardening, say, but not so good for sitting and reading). Take long underwear, take fingerless mitts (I find them in American drugstores in the Arthritis section). British plumbing is also a bit underpowered compared to American; be careful as it’s easy to clog a toilet (and embarrassing, too.) Oddly enough, many toilets have the usual shut-off valves hidden in the wall behind the toilet! Sometimes bathrooms are quite cold; it’s assumed that you will take a leisurely bath rather than a shower and the gallons of hot water will heat up the room (which is true). But you get a heated towel bar, which is very cozy.

I found that it’s helpful to have your British friends make introductions to people; it’s not impossible to meet people through casual conversations with strangers, but it’s harder than in the U.S.

Last tip: if you buy groceries at the food hall (not called a grocery store), and it appears that the bag buy or girl is on break, the reality is that there is no one who is paid to bag your groceries. YOU get to do it yourself, lazy American. If you stand there, stupidly staring at the checkout clerk who has placed a few plastic bags on the end of the carrier belt, she will not figure out that you are expecting her to do this job. She will be wondering if she’s going to have to explain to you that you are now supposed to place your purchases in the bags and take them home.

All this talk about coffee…I love coffee, but for Pete’s sake, have some tea. The British make wonderful tea.

I was kidding about the coffee thing! Really!

Also, I routinely keep my own house at 65 F during the day and 60 F at night, so I’m sure the temperatures will be fine. Good advice though, thank you. :slight_smile:

Where were you that a supermarket was called a ‘food hall’?

Also, with regards the pack your own groceries thing, every supermarket I’ve been to, the checkout person’s greeting has included, ‘Do you need any help with your packing?’ That is your opportunity to request someone bags your groceries for you, although I suspect it’s really only the elderly and infirm who are expected to ask for help.

“Food Halls” are only found in up-market department stores such as Harrods.

Quite, I’ve never really understood this packing-your-bags-for-you thing. Seems like customer service overkill to me. I much prefer packing my own than some spotty 17 year old who doesn’t know you shouldn’t put the tins on top of the lettuce.

And yes, it’s ‘supermarket’, although grocery store is perfectly understood.

Possibly Marks & Spencer’s?

It’s called a supermarket. I can think of only three places which have a food hall, and they’re all posh deparment stores in London: Harrod’s, Selfridges and Fortnum and Mason. Normal people shop in supermarkets, even M&S (the ‘food hall’ of which is called, imaginatively ‘M&S Food’). This misconception may be have been caused by having mega-rich friends from the 1960s. ‘Grocers’ will generally be understood to mean ‘greengrocer’s’ which sells mainly fruit and veg.

ETA: I agree about heating houses. Our houses are often well insulated and can be heated pretty well, but many of us choose not to jack the heat up in order to save fuel costs, which are extortionate. Particularly my mum who made us wear an extra sweater if we complained about being cold.