Lesson Learned / Odds and Ends/Departure
Time to go home.
The last day, we had a morning to kill before heading to the airport. We walked to the London Portrait Gallery. It was close to the hotel and free admission. It’s as advertised, mostly portraits of notable people, along with some sculptures and other items. It wouldn’t say to put it high on your list, unless it’s your thing. It was a cheap way to kill a couple of hours.
As I mentally stroll through the gallery, I wanted to do some miscellaneous stuff and pass on some lessons learned.
First thing, lessons learned.
1) In Paris, when asking for two of something, don’t put up two fingers with your palm facing outward. It is considered a rude gesture equivalent to the middle finger.
2) When you walk into a pub, unless it’s more of a restaurant with person waiting to seat you, walk up to the bar and order your drink, then carry it to your table. If you seat down at a table waiting for someone to come over, you’ll have a long wait. If you order food, order at the bar, and they will deliver it to you when it’s ready.
3) Tips. You may have heard wait staff in the UK and France are paid a living wage, where restaurant owners in the US expect you to tip to supplement their workers pay. There were a couple of pubs the only charge on the bill was for the fare. Most times, a 10% “service charge” was added, and the wait person informed us the charge could be removed on request, which of course we never did. Whether this was done to everyone or only Americans, I can’t say for sure. One restaurant in London, I can’t remember which, charged a 20% service charge and it wasn’t optional, however the 10% was the most common.
4) Ice. Ice in our water is an American thing, you will not automatically get it, but if you ask your waiter/waitress, they are happy to provide some for you. A couple of waitresses, who must have identified us as Americans, asked ahead of time.
5) To rent our car we used Celtic Legend, who provided the car through Arnold Clark car rental, at Heathrow airport, and was very satisfied with the service. The car was in tip top condition and clean. The staff was very helpful. We added the expense of insurance, we didn’t want a fender bender to spoil the vacation. The one thing they did warn us about, was not to put diesel fuel in the tank instead of regular unleaded by mistake. Diesel fuel is denser and will damage the fuel system and engine, and that will cost you. To make matters worse, I grew up in a state where the regular unleaded fuel has a black handle on the pump and the diesel fuel has a green handle on the pump. In England, it’s the opposite, the green handle is regular unleaded and the black handle is diesel. In keeping with the local parlance, keep calm, take a breath to be sure you have the correct pump, and carry on.
6) In the US, and I believe this is true of all cities with metropolitan mass transit systems, you pay for the train or trolley when boarding and that’s it, you can ride until you get off. In England, they break up their system into zones, you can travel through multiple zones depending where your going. So you “Tap On”, using a payment device when you board and “Tap Off”, after you get off at a similar device, and charge accordingly.
7) I was never a fan of putting a credit card on an electronic device. It’s not I find the technology hard to use, to the contrary, but having worked a bit in cyber security, I know how easily these devices can be hacked or stolen. When deciding to travel overseas, however, I bent my thinking. We added a credit card we use for travel to the “Wallet” app on our iPhones and it made live so much easier. Everywhere; restaurants, shops, attractions, and public transit held out a device with your charge to scan for payment.
8) Coffee is referred to as Coffee Americano, it’s black coffee. Beware, if you order cream in your coffee, you will get whipped cream.
9) You most likely already know, the electrical systems are different in the US and UK. Not to get to technical, the way I understand it, in the US, we use 120V/60Hz, and the UK uses 230V/50Hz, devices, such as your iPad, iPhone, or laptop, designed for one system will not work correctly on the other. Also, the plugs are different. An adapter is required, they are easy to find, we bought ours on Amazon.
Pub Culture
I enjoyed the pubs in the UK. It was a little strange walking up to these establishments and seeing people gathered outside with their pints, where in the US, unless there was outside seating, you wouldn’t be allowed to leave the building with a full glass, but I got used to it. The talk was always friendly, we got to know a couple of bartenders, and we even got into a soccer match (sorry, football), with a crowd in one place.
As well as dinner, we used the pubs as a rest stop in the middle of the day, since we rarely do lunch. It was great to sip something cold and talk about what we just and where we planned to go next. By the way, my wife enjoyed most of the ciders she tried. Of the ales I tried, I did not like Old Speckled Hen. When I ordered it, explaining to the bartender my search for the best English ale, she saved me by explaining it is a very traditional bitter beer, and offered me a taste. Fullers and Neck Oil, ended up being my go to ales.
Meals.
I don’t think we had a bad meal. Our favorites turned out to be the English classics; Bangers and Mash, Fish and Chips, and Steak and Ale pie. There isn’t the salad selection I’m used to in the US, but you can find them. Sometimes you just want some greens.
The macarons were fantastic, and the desserts were great.
Miscellaneous
There were a lot of places we simply walked through and enjoyed, I just didn’t have the time to include because I thought this blog was a little to long as it is.
Covent Garden is a section of town near where we stayed. No cars allowed, shops for that perfect souvenir or fashion statement, street performers, a boatload of dining options, and the atmosphere when we were there was hopping. In Edinburgh, we walked the Royal Mile and explored sights we simply took a fancy too.
Time to say goodbye and go home.
The trip took many hours of planning, to which I thank my wife, who is a wizard at pulling these things together.
I can only think of one, ‘not great’ review. After leaving Scotland and traveling back to London, we had a stop over in Scarborough, because we didn’t want to do all the driving in one shot, and stayed at the Norbreck Hotel. The hotel has an ocean view if your on the correct side, but to be honest, this place has seen better days. It was okay for a one night pit stop, but not much longer. It advertises parking, but don’t be duped, there are about 8 spaces, which fill up quick. The hotel gives you a card to put in your window and you can park on the public street by the hotel. GOOD LUCK. There were no spaces, at all. We were in a slight panic, wondering what to do when a DHL driver noticed us circling for a spot and said if we could wait until he made the delivery, we could have his spot, the man saved us. Scarborough itself, even for a coastal town was a bit dreary, but we were only there a very short time and may have caught it on a bad day.
And that, honestly, was the only bad mark for the entire trip. We had great weather, the fabled wet English climate spared us. The pace was perfect, we saw everything on our “must see” lists, but plenty of time to do things on a whim. We saw the Royal Yacht Britannia as a last second, ‘lets do it’, kind of thing, and I’m glad we did. The people we met were great.
I can’t wait for our next adventure.