PalenQ

1- Why was London's Oyster Card called an oyster?

2- Name the four busiest airports in western Europe?\

3- What is London's Notting Hill Carnival and when is it heldl?

4- This Stockholm Museum is devoted to a popular Swedish music group?

5- Name three of the UK's Channel islands?

6- What museum/attraction of the same name could you find in London, Blackpool, Vienna, Prague and Amsterdam?

7- What is Berlin's Uber famous department store?

8- What two countries are linked by a road and rail bridge and tunnel and which body of water does it cross and burrow under?

9- The writer James Joyce lived for a time as a young man in a Martello Tower situated beside the Forty Foot bathing place at XXXXXXXXX. The opening scene of Joyce's Ulysses is set in this tower. It now hosts a small Joycean museum, open in summer time. Bloomsday is celebrated in XXXXXXXXX in Joyce's honour on the 16th of June every year.
What is the name of this beach south of Dublin (and venue of where I celebrated my 21st birthday in homage to a writer that was so influential in my early life!)

10- Where in Rome would you find the Scala Santa (Holy Steps) of 28 white steps which devout pilgrims inch up saying prayers at the end of their pilgrimage to this Vatican-controlled church called the ??

Note - Anyone like to pitch in, like tom did magnifcently the other day and do a quiz or two or ten please do - any volunteers make your day known so I will dedsist that day or just post one before moi!

HELP! (Percy has volunteered to do a spell when he returns from Mexico - anyone else please step forward!) Merci bow cups!

bilboburgler

2) should include Jersey, all the millionaires
4) Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney just to knock them off

bilboburgler

Now with improved aim
2) should include Jersey, all the millionaires
5) Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney just to knock them off

sofarsogood

1 worlds your oyster
2 LHR CDG AMS FRA
3 Caribbean carnival August Bank Holiday
4 ABBA
5 Sark, Alderney Jersey
6 ???
7 Ka De We
8 Denmark Sweden??
9 ???
10 ??

PalenQ

5) and for all of them Sark and Herm - makes 5 'Chunnel' islands!

flanneruk

6 Tussauds
9 Sandycove
10. The answer's not St John Lateran. The stairs go up to the Lateran Palace, and the church known in Italian as San Giovanni in Laterano (referring to the AREA where it's found) is separated from the ancient palace

flanneruk

"and for all of them Sark and Herm - makes 5 'Chunnel' islands!"

... and Jethou. Didn't you ever collect stamps?

PalenQ

sofarssogood take the prize with seven correct - I am withdrawing question # 1 due to lack of good research or research that comes up with conflicting answers - any answer to # 1 will be counted correct as long as it makes sense.

It will be interesting for some of our Brit friends to come up with the accurate answer - may comport with what I read - or I may have been wrong.

PalenQ

http://www.silverdalen.se/stamps/cje98/jethou.htm

I did collect stamps but never knew Jethou had its own stamps - interesting.

flanner what do you know about why the Oyster Card is named after an Oyster?

Here's what I read - that the thing on turnstiles was the shape of an oyster - the thing you wand the card over - voila Oyster Card but subsequent research yields answers like what sofarsogood said.

Thanks - how's flannerpooch - maybe ask him/her/it about that?

tom_mn

#1 Could have been a play on the name of one of the first smart transit cards, Hong Kong's Octopus card, begun in 1997. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_card a later addition to the sealife theme was Seattle's Orca card.

Incidentally, Washington DC had the first smart card for transit fares in the US, in 1999.

PalenQ

http://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-Lond...an-Oyster-card

there are lots of theories - there must be some definitive source.

tom_mn

Maybe this? It had to have come from some kind of consulting design group.

http://appella.net/our-work/product-names/oyster/

But for me oyster means chewy and ugly with a bad smell, not really anything positive.

PalenQ

Well that is the definitive answer - maybe they made the readers to look like oysters' shells (though clam would have been better for that) or it was just a coincidence?

Well anyone all ten are answered correctly - #10 I had, from Wiki, the Lateran Basilica where the Scala Santa goes to. I was there not long ago and as always I find these type of pilgrimage places very intriguing if not puzzling. I of course take flanner's answer as the gospel, as always.

annhig

But for me oyster means chewy and ugly with a bad smell, not really anything positive.>>

well, for those of us who love oysters there might be a more positive connotation but that's no good for you. I've no idea why they called it the oyster, except that it's all enclosed in one place. That's not very convincing is it?so that's no 1.

2. sofasogood's got those right I think - LHR, AMS, CDG, FRA

3. I'd have thought that the answer what the Notting hill Carnival is, is rather in the question but a Caribbean- style festival in the Notting Hill area of London at the end of August is the pedantic answer

4. ABBA - but someone else said that first.

5. Flanner gets the prize here

6. A Big Wheel

7. KaDeWe - sofa's got that one again

8. I would also suggest Denmark and Sweden - i can't think of that Bridge without hearing the wonderful song that they used for the title music for the eponymous detective serial.

9. no idea - unlike you I'm not a fan of Joyce - you will have to enlighten us.

10. Flanner has this right, I'm sure.

Taking up your challenge, Pal, if you can wait that long, when i get back in about 10 days time, I'll do one about Venice.

PalenQ

annhig - great! and you can be your own judge! (I believe annhig is a magistrate in the U.K. - with those funny wigs) - you got all right save 2 - #6 flanner is right (every town has a big wheel these days) and flanner (or flanner pooch) got # 9 right too.

Have a good time or time wherever you're going - on work or on vacation just chill!

annhig

on Saturday I'm off to Venice for a week, Pal - hence my offer!

PalenQ

check out the new mass transit in Venice - the people mover from the Cruise Ship area to Pza Roma and the station area - not sure of where it exactly goes but for Venice earth shaking!

I was in Venice during Carnival once and it was great - costumed folks prancing, yes prancing all over!

I envy you - 20 inches of snow on ground here and high of 12 F tomorrow!

Ciao Ciao!